wannabe
/ˈwɒnəbi/
wannabe noun: someone who wishes to be someone or do something, but lacks the qualifications or talent; an overeager amateur; an aspirant.
Noun
wannabe (plural wannabes)
- Someone who wishes to be someone or do something, but lacks the qualifications or talent; an overeager amateur; an aspirant.
- Hollywood's restaurants are full of wannabe actors waiting to be discovered.
- Most of the people Hiro knows are will-bes or wannabes.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 61
- Someone who wishes to be part of, or to assimilate to, a majority group of which they are not a member.
- Bigger, mongrelly and black, he was clearly a Doberman wannabe.2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 126
wannabe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
wannabe in Hindi
- वान्नाबे, वन्नाबे
wannabe in Tamil
- வன்னாபே
wannabe in Marathi
- वन्नाबे, वान्नाबे
wannabe in Urdu
- نقل خورا
More languagesFewer languages
- wannabe in Bengali
- ওয়ান্নাবে
- wannabe in Telugu
- వాన్నాబే, వన్నాబే
- wannabe in Malayalam
- വാന്നാബെ
- wannabe in Kannada
- ವಾನ್ನಾಬೆ, ವನ್ನಾಬೆ
- wannabe in Gujarati
- વાન્નાબે
- wannabe in Odia
- ୱାନ୍ନାବେ
- wannabe in Nepali
- वान्नाबे
- wannabe in Arabic
- مُتَظَاهِرٌ mutaẓāhirun, طَمُوحٌ ṭamūḥun
Examples of wannabe in a sentence
- I won't have my system messed up by some wannabe "expert" who'll be gone next week!2012, BioWare, quoting Sho D'hen, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Mars:
- He had the reputation of a wannabe hardman, riding his cousin's coattails.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 251:
Synonyms of wannabe
Forms of wannabe
| plural | wannabes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | wanna-be |
| alternative form | wannabee |
| alternative form | want-to-be |
Origin of wannabe
Written form of a reduction of want to be, analyzable as wanna + be. Wannabe can be considered a conversion, category change, or functional shift. While occasionally appearing in print, usually as a less reduced phrase, the popularity of the word took off in the mid-1980s following the Madonna wannabe fashion trend: “wannabe”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.
Words formed from wannabe
Questions about wannabe
- What does wannabe mean?
- Wannabe means someone who wishes to be someone or do something, but lacks the qualifications or talent; an overeager amateur; an aspirant.
- What is wannabe in Hindi?
- Wannabe in Hindi is वान्नाबे, वन्नाबे. See Wannabe meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use wannabe in a sentence?
- I won't have my system messed up by some wannabe "expert" who'll be gone next week!
- What part of speech is wannabe?
- Wannabe is a noun.
- How do you pronounce wannabe?
- Wannabe is pronounced /ˈwɒnəbi/.
- What is the plural of wannabe?
- The plural of wannabe is wannabes.
Words near wannabe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wannabe (page history and authors); wannabe (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wannabe (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wannabe (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-au-wannabe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wannabe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wannabe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.