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pen name

/pɛn neɪm/
/pɛn neɪm/
IPA guide

Other forms: pen names

If you publish stories using a made-up name instead of your real one, it's your pen name. Even the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling once wrote a book under the pen name Robert Galbraith. Go figure.

Throughout history, many writers have used pen names to disguise their identities. In the last half of the 1800s, the British writer Mary Ann Evans published many acclaimed novels under her pen name, George Eliot, which she used because women writers weren't generally taken seriously at the time. Mark Twain is another famous pen name, chosen by Samuel Clemons because it was also a riverboat pilot's call meaning "two fathoms deep."

Definitions of pen name
  1. noun
    an author's pseudonym
    synonyms: nom de plume
    see moresee less
    type of:
    anonym, nom de guerre, pseudonym
    a fictitious name used when the person performs a particular social role
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