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exonym

/ˈɛksoʊnɪm/
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Other forms: exonyms

An exonym is a place name that's used by people who don't live there or speak the native language. While locals refer to their city as "München," most English-speakers call it by the exonym "Munich."

Exonyms are created for geographical names, groups, languages, and even the names of individual people, usually by outsiders who find the real names (or endonyms) too difficult to pronounce or spell. This makes sense when you think of the world's hundreds of written languages — many of which use entirely different alphabets. That's how we got English exonyms like "Croatia" instead of "Hrvatska," and "Gabon" for "République gabonaise." Exonym has Greek roots that mean "outside" and "name."

Definitions of exonym
  1. noun
    a name for a place or group not used by the local people
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