nail

CEFRA2

/neɪl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A thin pointed piece of metal used to join things.

  2. 02

    noun

    A hard covering at the end of a finger or toe.

Examples

  • We found a nail stuck in the tire.

  • Drive the nail into the board.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [neɪ̯ɫ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.

  2. The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To fasten something using a nail.

More examples

In context

  • He nailed the placard to the post.

  • He used the ax head for nailing.

  • When I'm nervous I bite my nails.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She tried to blank the final shot and win the game, but missed by inches.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English nail, nayl, Old English næġl, from Proto-West Germanic *nagl, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”). Cognates Compare North Frisian Nail (“nail”), Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, German and Low German Nagel, Dutch and Swedish nagel, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål negl, Norwegian Nynorsk nagl, Finnish naula (“nail”), Estonian nael (“nail”), (compare Irish ionga, Latin unguis, Albanian nyell (“ankle, hard part of a limb”), Lithuanian nagas, Russian нога́ (nogá, “foot, leg”), но́готь (nógotʹ, “nail”), Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux), Persian ناخن (nâxon), Sanskrit नख (nakhá).