Did you mayhaps mean need?
Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
- n. Slang A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
Wiktionary
- n. slang, sometimes derogatory A person who is intellectual but generally introverted
- n. informal, sometimes derogatory One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.
- n. slang An unattractive, socially awkward, annoying, undesirable, and/or boring, person; a dork.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious
- n. an intelligent but single-minded expert in a particular technical field or profession
Etymologies
- Unknown (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps after Nerd, a character in If I Ran the Zoo, by Theodor Seuss Geisel. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I was merrily typing away to friends in some primitive chat room on my IBM XT (super nerd), listening to some music (probably Flock of Seagulls -- nerd++), and watching Back to the Future with the sound off (neeeeerrrrrrrd).”
“By Stephanie Castillo YourTango Whether you're a word nerd or a grammarian's nightmare, a study published in Psychological Science says that people with similar language...”
“My inner word nerd is jumping for joy at the thought of adding this kit to my life.”
“Videoblogger Ze Frank is in what he calls a nerd fight with Rocketboom producer Andrew Baron.”
“However sitting in front of a client and telling them they are idiots and they don't know what they are doing and what I call nerd flexing in front of them never goes over well.”
“Babylon 5 which I consider one of the great series ... because it DOES have a logical and plotted progression ... still ends with that "noble sacrifice" business so popular in nerd-world.”
Is a grim, dark, nihilistic view of the future in SciFi...groundbreaking?
“However, I feel that nerd is the wrong choice of words and something like geek would be better.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Yogi’s Review Forum
“Daran's guide doesn't include party conference resident bloggers, but it can only be a matter of time before the smug nerd is added to his A-Z.”
“Being niche, being geeky, being a nerd is something we have to accept about ourselves, and revel in it.”
MIND MELD: What You Should Know About Speculative Fiction and Mainstream Acceptance (Part 2)
“This nerd is hated by all (and evidently there is nothing wrong with this in Tanya Huff's world), and nearly unleashes unspeakable horrors on the world before he is defeated.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nerd’.
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
Words that Make Me Cry
geek, nerd, wishywashy, freak, issue, ticktock, school, university, uni, work, task, homework and 12 more...
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Insult Words
A rich collection of all the ways you can insult someone's intelligence.
nincompoop, dimwit, moron, cretin, idiot, meathead, dingbat, nerd, loony, fool, dunce, lamebrain and 31 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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ttobba's Words
graph, amore, labrador, sun, boreal, norsk, coffee, cafe, pekin, peking, train, rail and 97 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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zanshin's Words
gargoyle, ennui, paradigm, aardvark, verisimilitude, ghoti, tenacity, nescience, guillemet, squonk, maven, moxie and 210 more...
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Hiroe's Words
facetious, bardic, twatwaffle, cattywampus, splendiferous, zomg, merf, fwaa, fnord, tortify, schwiz, blort and 225 more...
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vinyl's Words
deliverator, finna, metric fuckton, fag, hyphy, ginormous, sacrilicious, fantabulous, macaca, n-word, pterodactyl, genious and 560 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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some of my favorites
some of my favorite words
tintinnabulation, lascivious, ontology, chthonic, eldritch, squamous, verity, specificity, euphony, cacophony, therianthrope, morbidity and 157 more...
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Creative Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like what they mean, but they're not *technically* onomatopoetic.
(another edit: this list is morphing into something I can't quite describe. But I still like it.)ugly, icon, hang, weenie, bell, zit, ennui, sour, speed, rankle, muddle, disgruntle and 129 more...
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vivek's list
flibbertigibbet, droll, reticence, prelude, erinaceous, brinkmanship, depone, inaniloquent, limerance, pronk, onomatopoeia, oxymoron and 385 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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MrWindUpBird's Words
juxtaposition, cosmonaut, cinema, film, movie, lemon, tactile, paper, jedi, cuddle, eyeglasses, spectacles and 61 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nerd.
austinwords Long before 'nerd' took on its present meaning, it was commonly used by cartoonists and graphic artists to mean eraser crumbs... Mar 24, 2012
agenttgirl One of my favorite words because I consider myself a huge nerd. Nerds rock :D Jun 12, 2011
lea "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" Feb 28, 2009
reesetee Definition #2: ??? Jun 30, 2008
vanishedone O WeirdNet, what level of significance must a nerd attain to cease to qualify as one? Jun 29, 2008
whichbe First coined by Dr. Seuss in "If I ran the Zoo". May 7, 2008
icco Word, Bird
You're a Nerd. Jul 20, 2007
jenlight My favorite words all rhyme: word, nerd and bird.
Dec 30, 2006