Word.ws English Dictionary

true name

/ˈtɹuː ˈneɪm/

true name noun: the unique name of an entity, which can be used to control or manipulate that entity.

Noun

true name (plural true names)

  1. The unique name of an entity, which can be used to control or manipulate that entity.
    • He saw that in this dusty and fathomless matter of learning the true name of each place, thing, and being, the power he wanted lay like a jewel at the bottom of a dry well. For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.1968, Ursula Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, page 59
    • It would be back to the stone floors and getting up when it was still dark and no alcohol under any circumstances and memorising the true names of everything until the brain squeaked.1987, Terry Pratchett, Mort, →ISBN, page 229
  2. A person's preferred name, particularly where this does not match their legal name.
    • Near-synonym: chosen name
    • I suggested to Sofie that another baptism wasn't necessary since God always knew her deepest self, but we could do an affirmation of baptism with her true name.2020 September 29, Heidi Neumark, Sanctuary: Being Christian in the Wake of Trump, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, →ISBN, page 13

Forms of true name

pluraltrue names

Questions about true name

What does true name mean?
True name means the unique name of an entity, which can be used to control or manipulate that entity.
What part of speech is true name?
True name is a noun.
How do you pronounce true name?
True name is pronounced /ˈtɹuː ˈneɪm/.
What is the plural of true name?
The plural of true name is true names.

Words near true name in the dictionary

  1. true loves
  2. true mahogany
  3. true melon
  4. true muonium
  5. true muoniums
  6. true name
  7. true names
  8. true neutral
  9. true north
  10. true or false
  11. true oxlip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: true name (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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