vanessa
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Vanessa¹
- /vəˈnɛsə/
Rhymes with -ɛsə
Where it comes from
Coined by Jonathan Swift in the 18th century as a pseudonym for a lady friend named Esther Vanhomrigh (or Van Homrigh), an Irish woman of Dutch descent, by taking the Dutch preposition van from her surname and adding -essa (perhaps influenced by the first syllable of Esther).
proper noun
- A female given name originating as a coinage. Vanessa be the Name / By which thou shalt be known to Fame. / Vanessa, by the Gods enroll'd: / Her Name on Earth - shall not be told.
vanessa²
Where it comes from
From the genus name.
noun vanessas
- Any butterfly of the genus Vanessa. The Nymphalidae are a very extensive group, of generally strong-winged and very bright-coloured butterflies, very abundant in the tropics, and represented in our own country by our Fritillaries, our Vanessas, and our Purple-emperor.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: genus vanessa, elena, ness, vannie, evangeline, nessa, janessa, nevaeh, velma, wendy, vanassa, luana, emmabeth, wendi, janae, averianna
Translations
Talk about this word "vanessa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/vanessa. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. vanessa. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/vanessa "vanessa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/vanessa.Cite this
@misc{vanessa_2026,
title = {vanessa},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/vanessa},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
