nettle
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nehtuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnɛtəl
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
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
Loosely, anything which causes a similarly stinging rash, such as a jellyfish or sea nettle.
Bull nettle, silver-leaf nettle, white horse-nettle (Solanum elaeagnifolium)
Western horse-nettle, robust horse-nettle (Solanum dimidiatum)
Most, but not all, subspecies of Urtica dioica (common nettle)
Certain plants that have spines or prickles
verb
transitive
Of the nettle plant and similar physical causes, to sting, causing a rash in someone.
transitivefigurative
To pique, irritate, vex or provoke.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
Used this way, nettle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A family of plants of order Urticales including many nettles with stinging hairs.
European bellflower with blue-purple to lilac flowers formerly used to treat sore throat.
European annual with coarsely dentate leaves.
An itchy skin eruption characterized by weals with pale interiors and well-defined red margins.
Any of various trees of the genus Celtis having inconspicuous flowers and small berrylike fruits.
Any of several tall Australian trees of the genus Laportea.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of the nettle plant and similar physical causes
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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.