Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an estimation apparatus and method for nonlinear distortion and a receiver. The estimation method for nonlinear distortion includes: sampling a band-limited analog signal to obtain a sampling sequence; calculating a nonlinear perturbation coefficient in nonlinear distortion estimation based on a Nyquist pulse; calculating a nonlinear perturbation term superimposed on a signal by using the nonlinear perturbation coefficient and the sampling sequence; and calculating a nonlinear distortion waveform by using the nonlinear perturbation term. With the embodiments of the present disclosure, not only any modulation formats are compatible, but also advantages of high precision and good adaptability may be achieved.