Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having an unknown or unacknowledged name: an anonymous author.
- adj. Having an unknown or withheld authorship or agency: an anonymous letter; an anonymous phone call.
- adj. Having no distinctive character or recognition factor: "a very great, almost anonymous center of people who just want peace” ( Alan Paton).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wanting a name; not named and determined, as an animal not assigned to any species.
- Without any name acknowledged, as that of author, contributor, or the like: as, an anonymous pamphlet; an anonymous subscription.
- Of unknown name; whose name is withheld: as, an anonymous author.
- Often abbreviated to anon.
Wiktionary
- adj. Lacking a name; not named and determined, as an animal not assigned to any species.
- adj. Without any name acknowledged of a person responsible, as that of author, contributor, or the like.
- adj. Of unknown name; whose name is withheld
- adj. Lacking individuality.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Nameless; of unknown name; also, of unknown or unavowed authorship
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having no known name or identity or known source
- adj. not known or lacking marked individuality
Etymologies
- From Late Latin anōnymus, from Greek anōnumos, nameless : an-, without; see a-1 + onuma, name (influenced by earlier nōnumnos, nameless); see nŏ̄-men- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“It was an _anonymous_ Collection; and, as being anonymous, seemed to have no claim upon Christians.”
“The man, who wants to remain anonymous, is believed to have picked up the disease when he lived in Indonesia.”
“One Democratic fundraiser, who wishes to remain anonymous, is convinced that the answer is no.”
“He did not give any further explanation about why he set up the company and kept his name anonymous initially.”
“Taken in its classic definition, the term anonymous might refer to that without characteristic something so devoid of distinction that it refuses its own identity.”
“Commissioner Fivaz described opposition from what he called anonymous police officials and certain police unions to the impending shake-up in the South African Police Service, as disappointing.”
“When I would make speeches I would refer always to what I called the anonymous greats.”
“And a bunch of other bad things I'd rather not reveal even if you're keeping my name anonymous.”
“Throughout his life, Sori Yanagi was inspired by what he called "anonymous design" - he cited the Jeep and a baseball glove as two examples - and he in turn inspired younger designers, like Naoto Fukasawa, Tom Dixon and Jasper Morrison.”
“They said committee investigators had interviewed GlaxoSmithKline and agency employees as well as what it called anonymous whistleblowers.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anonymous’.
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7762 more...
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maf
sectarian, sectarian =narrow..., oppression, oppress, sort out, worldwide, legit, constrain, constrained, I feel constrained, constraint, divisive and 56 more...
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