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

Earth X is the place where the Nazis won.

From Salon

He was supposed to be their very own Horst Wessel, the murdered brownshirt the Nazis used as a martyr to rally people to fascism.

From Salon

That’s one step away from “The Eternal Jew,” the infamous Nazi propaganda movie that compared Jews to rats and argued they needed to be eradicated.

From Los Angeles Times

At Munich the UK and France forced Czechoslovakia to surrender territory and not long after its independence to Nazi Germany.

From BBC

He eventually discovered a group more to his liking: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known to history as the Nazis.

From Salon