Nazi

[naht-see, nat-]

noun

plural

Nazis 

1. a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler and advocated totalitarian government, territorial expansion, antisemitism, and Aryan supremacy, all these leading directly to World War II and the Holocaust.

2. (often lowercase),  a person elsewhere who holds similar views.

3. (often lowercase),  a person who is fanatically dedicated to or seeks to regulate a specified activity, practice, etc..

   a jazz nazi who disdains other forms of music;

   health nazis trying to ban junk food.

adjective

1. of or relating to the Nazis.

Nazi

/ ˈnɑːtsɪ, ˈnɑːtsɪˌɪzəm, ˈnɑːtˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. a member of the fascist National Socialist German Workers' Party, which was founded in 1919 and seized political control in Germany in 1933 under Adolf Hitler

2. derogatory,  anyone who thinks or acts like a Nazi, esp showing racism, brutality, etc

adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to the Nazis

Sensitive Note

Nazi in the extended sense of “a fanatical or domineering person” has existed at least since 1980 and parallels the use of the word police in the language police/the grammar police . Though this usage of Nazi is usually intended as jocular, it implies being intolerant of other people’s views and practices. And many people consider any extended use of the word Nazi to be offensive, in that it trivializes the terrible crimes of the German Nazis.

Other Word Forms

• anti-Nazi adjective
• pro-Nazi adjective
• Nazism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Nazi¹

First recorded in 1930–35; from German Nazi, short for Nationalsozialist “National Socialist”

Word History and Origins

Origin of Nazi¹

C20: from German, phonetic spelling of the first two syllables of Nationalsozialist National Socialist

Example Sentences

The son of a Jewish fur trader who died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, as a lawyer Badinter built a reputation defending clients his peers wouldn't touch.

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Hours before the May 1960 opening of Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House, Otto Frank gazes at the empty annex where his family and four other Jews hid from the Nazis for more than two years.

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The Nazi occupation was only one of many reasons his childhood was not a happy one, although his mother and certain teachers recognized his musical abilities early and tried to help as they could.

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Because of this, Sam’s gay awakening story, set against the Nazis and Holocaust, never comes into emotional focus and just makes the show feel longer.

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Written amid the emerging Nazi threat to Europe, Dennis Wheatley’s novel captures 1930s British anxiety in the face of uncertainty that seems to come from hell itself.

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