Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A name by which one people or social group refers to another and by which the group so named does not refer to itself.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A name given to a group or category of people by a secondary person or persons other than the people it refers to.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

exo- (“outside”) + -onym (“name”)

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Examples

Comments

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  • exonym – a name for a place that is not used within that place by the local inhabitants (neither in the official language of the state nor in local languages), or a name for a people or language that is not used by the people or language to which it refers

    July 19, 2008