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nose

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nohz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnoʊz

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 protuberance on the face housing the nostrils, which are used to breathe or smell.

  2. The organ of smell and entrance to the respiratory tract; the prominent part of the face of man or other mammals

    “He has a cold in the nose.”

  3. The sense of smell (especially in animals)

    “The hound has a good nose.”

  4. idiomatic

    Bouquet, the smell of something, especially wine.

  5. The skill in recognising bouquet.

  6. A natural skill

    “He has a nose for good deals.”

verb

  1. intransitive

    To move cautiously by advancing its front end.

  2. (intransitive, idiomatic, also followed by around or about, in which case, ambitransitive) To snoop.

  3. transitive

    To detect by smell or as if by smell.

  4. transitive

    To defeat (as in a race or other contest) by a narrow margin; sometimes with out.

  5. transitive

    To confront; be closely face to face or opposite to.

  6. transitive

    To utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

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How It’s Used

The word’s distinct uses, one example each.

  • Protuberance / organnoun

    “He has a cold in the nose.”

  • Sensenoun

    “The hound has a good nose.”

  • Naturalnoun

    “He has a nose for good deals.”

More ways to use nose

  • “He has a cold in the nose.”noun
  • “The hound has a good nose.”noun
  • “He has a nose for good deals.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

red noselong nosebroken nosenose like

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • nosedadjectiveInflected form

    Having a nose (either literal or metaphoric) especially of a specified kind.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • nose jobnounCompound term

    Cosmetic surgery to improve the appearance of your nose.

  • nose outverbCompound term

    Recognize or detect by or as if by smelling.

  • nose ringnounCompound term

    A ring worn on the nose as an ornament or on the nose of an animal to control it.

  • nose candynounCompound term

    Street names for cocaine.

  • nose conenounCompound term

    Front consisting of the conical head of a missile or rocket that protects the payload from heat during its passage through the atmosphere.

  • nose countnounCompound term

    A periodic count of the population.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: protuberance on the face housing the nostrils

nozzle

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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.