nasal
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nayzuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈneɪzəl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
zootomy
A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.
anatomy
Either of two bones of the skull of vertebrates above the fishes which lie in front of the frontal bones and in humans are oblong in shape forming by their junction the bridge of the nose and partly covering the nasal cavity.
An Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia
adjective
anatomyrelational
Of or pertaining to the nose or to the nasion.
phonetics
Having a sound imparted by means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng.
phonetics
Characterized by resonance in the nasal passage.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (zootomy) A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.
Used this way, nasal 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
Nearby words
- nasal bone , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use nasal
- “He had a strong nasal voice after catching a cold.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Plate / either
Other combinations
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The inner corner of the eye.
Either of the two cavities lying between the floor of the cranium and the roof of the mouth and extending from the face to the pharynx.
One of several turbinate bones in the nasal cavity.
A consonant produced through the nose with the mouth closed.
A decongestant that provides temporary relief of nasal symptoms of the common cold and rhinitis and upper respiratory infections.
The passages in the nasal cavity formed by the projections of the nasal conchae.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The suture between the two nasal bones.
A speech sound produced with both the oral and nasal passages open (as French nasal vowels).
Any of the paired sinuses in the bones of the face adjacent to the nasal cavity that are lined with mucous membrane that is continuous with the lining of the nasal cavities.
Chronic secretion of mucus from the rear of the nasal cavity into the nasopharynx.
The suture between the two nasal bones.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: plate or or scale
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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.