newbie

IPA/ˈnjuːbi/
KK[nˈubˌi]IPA/ˈnuːbi/

newbie — noun

  • newbiesingular
  • newbiesplural

1. a person who lacks experience because they have only recently started a new job,

1.nounB1
Definition

a person who lacks experience because they have only recently started a new job, hobby, or online activity

Example

The team assigned a mentor to each newbie during the first week on the job.

collocation: assign a mentor to a newbie

Aiko's first day as a newbie at the coding bootcamp felt overwhelming.

Common collocations
  • complete newbie
  • total newbie
  • newbie at something
  • newbie to something
Synonyms
  • beginner

    neutral register; the most common equivalent

  • novice

    slightly more formal; often used in professional or religious contexts

  • rookie

    informal, common in sports and law enforcement

  • newcomer

    neutral; emphasizes recent arrival more than lack of skill

Antonyms
  • expert

    someone with a high level of skill and knowledge

  • veteran

    someone with long-term experience in an activity

Usage Note

Commonly used in informal contexts such as gaming, online forums, and workplace training. Less formal than beginner or novice.

Common Mistakes

I am a newbie of cooking.
I am a newbie at cooking.
use 'at' not 'of' to introduce the activity.
He is a newbie worker.
He is a newbie at work.
newbie already means an inexperienced person; do not add worker after it.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Newbie is an informal term for someone who is very new to an activity and is most common in digital and gaming culture. Beginner is the standard neutral word for someone starting out, used in any context from sports to music. Novice carries a slightly more formal tone and is often found in professional training, religion, or hierarchical systems. Rookie is equally informal but favours sports, military, and workplace settings, emphasising a lack of experience on the job. Newcomer focuses on the fact of having just arrived rather than on skill level; a newcomer may already be skilled but is simply new to that specific group or place. A fresh hire might be called a newbie in an informal office, a newcomer at orientation, and a rookie by teammates. A first-time chess player is a beginner or novice, never a newcomer unless they just joined the club.

beginner ↗novice ↗rookie ↗newcomer ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Prepositions

Etymology

EnglishEnglish internet culture

Newbie first appeared in British military slang in the 1960s or 1970s, probably a shortened form of new boy used in schools and barracks. The -bie ending may also echo the earlier slang term newie for a newcomer. The word spread widely through early internet culture (Usenet, online gaming) in the 1990s, where it became a standard label for inexperienced users.