anonymous
adjective
anon·y·mous
ə-ˈnä-nə-məs 
1
: of unknown authorship or origin
an anonymous tip
2
: not named or identified
an anonymous author
They wish to remain anonymous.
3
: lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability
the anonymous faces in the crowd
… the gray anonymous streets …—
William Styron
William Styron
anonymousness
noun
Examples of anonymous in a Sentence
The donor wishes to remain anonymous.
An anonymous buyer purchased the painting.
The college received an anonymous gift.
He made an anonymous phone call to the police.
The reporter got an anonymous tip.
His was just another anonymous face in the crowd.
Recent Examples on the Web
Under North Carolina law, any winners of more than $50 million can remain anonymous for up to 90 days after claiming their prize.
—Fernando Cervantes Jr, USA Today, 12 Feb. 2026
DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent have been granted conditional approvals by Beijing to purchase a certain amount of H200s, Reuters reported last month, citing anonymous sources.
—John Liu, CNN Money, 11 Feb. 2026
A little mystery can certainly go a long way in this genre—but this stunt only highlights that the person at the center of these songs sounds downright anonymous.
—Mehan Jayasuriya, Pitchfork, 11 Feb. 2026
Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact the anonymous Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
—Caroline Zimmerman, Kansas City Star, 11 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for anonymous
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Fernando Cervantes Jr, USA Today, 12 Feb. 2026
DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent have been granted conditional approvals by Beijing to purchase a certain amount of H200s, Reuters reported last month, citing anonymous sources.
—John Liu, CNN Money, 11 Feb. 2026
A little mystery can certainly go a long way in this genre—but this stunt only highlights that the person at the center of these songs sounds downright anonymous.
—Mehan Jayasuriya, Pitchfork, 11 Feb. 2026
Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact the anonymous Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
—Caroline Zimmerman, Kansas City Star, 11 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for anonymous
Cite this Entry
“Anonymous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anonymous. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
anonymous
adjective
anon·y·mous
ə-ˈnän-ə-məs
1
: not named or identified
the donor remained anonymous
2
: made or done by someone unknown
anonymous gifts
an anonymous poem
anonymously
adverb
anonymousness
noun
Etymology
from Latin anonymus "anonymous," from Greek anonymos (same meaning), from an-, a- "not, without" and onyma, onoma "name" — related to synonymous
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