Word.ws English Dictionary

vatnik

/ˈvætnɪk/

vatnik noun: a Russian style of quilted jacket.

vatnik: a Russian style of quilted jacket
Image: Richard Peter, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

vatnik (plural vatniks or vatniki)

  1. A Russian style of quilted jacket.
    • Two models each for men and women are featured at prices ranging from 100 to 140 rubles, more than the cost of a 'vatnik.' (The ruble is nominally valued at four to $1.)1959, Men's Wear
  2. (derogatory) An unintelligent Russian patriot.
    • Vatnik, originally a name of a warm cotton-padded Russian jacket that is still used sometimes in rural areas, has a broad meaning of all people with imperial Russian ideology.2015 January 5, Oksana Grytsenko, “Ukrainian wartime glossary: Ukrop, Vatnik and more”, in Kyiv Post (news), →ISBN
    • A vatnik basically refers to a Russian who is not too bright and who loves him some Putin.2017, Erin Coyne, Igor Fisun, What They Didn't Teach You in Russian Class: Slang Phrases for the Cafe, Club, Bar, Bedroom, Ball Game and More, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    sovok, portyanka
  3. (Internet, broadly, derogatory, neologism) A supporter of Vladimir Putin, Russian nationalism, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022; a Putinist.
    Synonyms:
    Putinist, zigger, Ivan
  4. (Internet, broadly, derogatory, neologism) A soldier in the Russian armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
    Synonyms:
    orc

Examples of vatnik in a sentence

  • To mock the audience and depict the Russian man as a vatnik [uneducated hurray patriot] or a gopnik [in English: chav] seems totally inappropriate to me.2017, Lena Jonson, Andrei Erofeev, Russia - Art Resistance and the Conservative-Authoritarian Zeitgeist, Routledge, →ISBN:
  • At first, vatniks were pro-Russian citizens, in the view of some, Sovietized lumpenproletariat, who supported the separation of Crimea and close ties with [Russia].2017, Anna Matveeva, Through Times of Trouble: Conflict in Southeastern Ukraine Explained from Within, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 198:

Synonyms of vatnik

Forms of vatnik

pluralvatniks
pluralvatniki
alternative formvatnyk

Origin of vatnik

Borrowed from Russian ва́тник (vátnik, literally “quilted jacket”). The sense of "unintelligent Russian patriot" was derived from the jackets worn by Soviet citizens and an online cartoon about a sentient jacket known by the same name. The term was popularized in Russia in 2011 and re-popularized at large in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine to refer to supporters of the invasion, especially online users, even if they are not from Russia. Reflecting usage in Ukrainian and Russian, the term was later extended to refer to Russian soldiers who were involved in war against Ukraine.

Questions about vatnik

What does vatnik mean?
Vatnik means a Russian style of quilted jacket.
How do you use vatnik in a sentence?
To mock the audience and depict the Russian man as a vatnik [uneducated hurray patriot] or a gopnik [in English: chav] seems totally inappropriate to me.
What part of speech is vatnik?
Vatnik is a noun.
How do you pronounce vatnik?
Vatnik is pronounced /ˈvætnɪk/.
What is the plural of vatnik?
The plural of vatnik is vatniks.

Words near vatnik in the dictionary

  1. vatmaker
  2. vatmakers
  3. vatman
  4. vatmen
  5. Vatnajökull
  6. vatnik
  7. vatniki
  8. vatniks
  9. vatnyk
  10. vatnyks
  11. vato

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vatnik (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-vatnik.wav.

Cite this entry: “vatnik.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vatnik. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.