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Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of anonymity
First recorded in 1810–20; anonym(ous) + -ity, or from French anonymité
Explanation
If you want a little bit of invisibility, you might seek anonymity, or being anonymous and nameless. He was a very wealthy man, and he gave most of his money away with quiet anonymity, so no one knew who was helping. The noun anonymity comes from a Greek word meaning "without a name." If you have anonymity, you have namelessness, and people will not know who you are. Some words that are the opposite of anonymity are "celebrity" and "fame." Sometimes people request anonymity, as in "he phoned the police to report the break-in across the street but requested anonymity so the burglars wouldn't know who turned them in."
Vocabulary lists containing anonymity
"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen
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Allegiant
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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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.
See Examples For:
"It brought back the fear, anxiety, and despair we experienced at the height of war," she said, requesting anonymity for security concerns.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Waiving her anonymity, she said she had been trying to protect other women by ensuring that Levy was jailed.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Jurors in the highly anticipated murder trial of Luigi Mangione, charged with gunning down a health insurance executive, will receive anonymity, a judge said on Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
But trust in Infantino at the highest levels of global soccer had been eroding for months, according to high-ranking officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
The anonymity and alienation of big-city life makes people hard and unfeeling.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
Presumably because of the libel laws, Cross confines his harsher remarks about the House of Commons to anonymities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Director Clair uses anonymities for his leads; Actor Raymond Cordy was a taxi-driver a year ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
I am not quite so pleased to get these anonymities, I must confess, as I am to get a clean, tall editio princeps of The Orphan or of Love for Love.
From Gossip in a Library by Edmund Gosse
I remember doing just the same thing once when I came home from school and had an exciting story to tell, with preservation of anonymities.
From New Grub Street by George Gissing
It is the rendezvous of expiring illusions, the gathering place of the anonymities which utilize man, beasts and plants.
From Fantazius Mallare A Mysterious Oath by Wallace Smith
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.
