alias
Americannoun
adverb
adverb
noun
Etymology
Origin of alias
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin: “at another time, otherwise”; see also else
Explanation
Your alias could be as important as the name you use when you’re on the run or as simple as your screen name on a social networking site. Either way, an alias is a temporary name, one you don’t use all the time or for every occasion. If you crash your parents' lovingly-restored sports car into the garage when you aren't even supposed to be driving it, it might be easier to skip town and live under an assumed name, or alias, than deal with their reaction. Alias can also be used as an adverb to mean "also known as." Your parents might be less than thrilled when you introduce your new boyfriend, "John Smith, alias Lock-Jaw Johnnie, wanted in 39 states."
Vocabulary lists containing alias
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Bud, Not Buddy
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The Westing Game
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If you trace in this event the origins of a similar scene in Alias Grace and also one in The Blind Assassin, you would be right.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025
In Atwater there’s Alias Books, Proof Bakery and wide sidewalks with cafes.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 2, 2024
Going into Evain’s “Mary Sidney, Alias Shakespeare,” an absorbing staged conference presented at the Théâtre de l’Épée de Bois, in the suburbs of Paris, I expected little more than a pleasantly quirky intellectual exercise.
From New York Times • Sep. 29, 2022
UPS has signed a letter of intent to buy 150 Alias, with the first 10 due to start arriving in 2024.
From Washington Post • Jan. 31, 2022
Alias autem subtiles considerationes circa Incarnationis articulos tenentur aliqui magis vel minus explicite credere, secundum quod convenit statui et officio uniuscuiusque.”
From Grace, Actual and Habitual A Dogmatic Treatise by Preuss, Arthur
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
