What does nervous-nellie mean?

nervous-nellie

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.08 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

adj

Informal

adj

Alternative spelling of nervous-Nellie.

adj

Alternative spelling of nervous-Nellie.

"1993, David Ansen, "Goodbye, Mr. Gibson (film review of The Man Without a Face)," Newsweek,, 30 Aug, Woody Allen plays his most frazzled variation on the Woody we know best: a nervous-Nellie urban neurotic kvetching his way through life as a means of avoiding it."

nervous-nelly (alternative)

nervous Nellie

nervous Nellie

How to pronounce nervous-nellie

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “nervous-nellie”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “nervous-nellie”.

Repeat and practice — Say “nervous-nellie” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.