nail

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nayl

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈneɪl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
The claw of a bird or other animal.
The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.

verb

Attach something somewhere by means of nails
Hit hard
transitiveslang
To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
transitiveslang
To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
transitiveslang
To expose as a sham.
transitive
To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.

Used this way, nail is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use nail

“Nail the board onto the wall.”verb
“He nailed down a spot at Harvard.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Thin / terminal

nail polishnail platefinger nailthumb nail

Other combinations

nail bediron naillast nailfinal nail

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

nailernounInflected form
A worker who attaches something by nailing it.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

nail holenounCompound term
A hole left after a nail is removed.
nail polishnounCompound term
A cosmetic lacquer that dries quickly and that is applied to the nails to color them or make them shiny.
nail pullingnounCompound term
A form of torture in which the fingernails or toenails are removed.
nail removalnounCompound term
A form of torture in which the fingernails or toenails are removed.
nail-tailed kangaroonounCompound term
Small wallabies with a horny nail on the tip of the tail.
nail-tailed wallabynounCompound term
Small wallabies with a horny nail on the tip of the tail.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: attach something somewhere by means of nails

fail

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.