nickel
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A United States coin worth one twentieth of a dollar.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nikuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnɪkəl
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
USCanadacountable
A United States coin worth one twentieth of a dollar
uscanadacountable
A coin worth 5 cents.
USslangby extension
Five dollars worth of a drug
usslangby extension
Five hundred dollars.
uncountable
A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
USslangsometimes the nickel or the hot nickel
Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
verb
Plate with nickel
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A United States coin worth one twentieth of a dollar
Used this way, nickel 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 nickel
- “I found a shiny nickel on the sidewalk this morning.”
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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.
Spend money frugally.
An alloy whose main constituent is nickel.
A bronze containing up to 30% nickel.
A rechargeable battery with a nickel cathode and a cadmium anode.
A storage battery having a nickel oxide cathode and an iron anode with an electrolyte of potassium hydroxide.
A storage battery having a nickel oxide cathode and an iron anode with an electrolyte of potassium hydroxide.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.