Nazi

[ naht-see, nat- ]

noun

, plural Na·zis.

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) Sometimes Offensive. 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.

Derived Forms

• Nazism, noun

Other Words From

• an·ti-Na·zi adjective noun
• pro-Na·zi adjective 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

As the Nazi legal thinker Carl Schmitt maintained, the choice is arbitrary.

From Salon

Central to Trump and his agents’ plans to impose their authoritarian vision on American society is Nazi legal theorist and jurist Carl Schmitt’s concept of a state of exception and the distinction between “friend and enemy” in a permanent state of emergency where the ruler, i.e.

From Salon

Coupled with Trump's heated rhetoric comparing undocumented immigrants to “animals” and saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors didn't need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

From Salon

Woodward’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison, devoted much of the three-month trial to assailing what he called the “Nazi kills gay Jew” narrative and portrayed his client as struggling with his sexuality while growing up in a conservative family.

From Los Angeles Times

For instance, J. Edgar Hoover, who was the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, claimed that his group broke up a Nazi spy ring in South America.

From National Geographic Kids