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nest

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nehst
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnɛst

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

  1. A structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young

  2. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.

  3. A place used by a monotreme, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.

  4. A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.

  5. A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.

  6. A retreat, or place of habitual resort.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To settle into a home.

  2. Fit together or fit inside

  3. transitive

    To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).

  4. intransitive

    To successively neatly fit inside another.

  5. intransitive

    To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").

  6. intransitiveof animals

    To build or settle into a nest.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young

Used this way, nest 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 nest

  • “Birds are nesting outside my window every Spring.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Structure / place

nest eggnest building

Other combinations

empty nestlove nestnest site

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • nestornounPerson or profession

    A wise old counselor to the Greeks at Troy.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • nest eggnounCompound term

    A fund of money put by as a reserve.

  • nesting placenounCompound term

    A place suitable for nesting.

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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.