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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Pleasing and agreeable in nature: had a nice time.
  2. adj. Having a pleasant or attractive appearance: a nice dress; a nice face.
  3. adj. Exhibiting courtesy and politeness: a nice gesture.
  4. adj. Of good character and reputation; respectable.
  5. adj. Overdelicate or fastidious; fussy.
  6. adj. Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle: a nice distinction; a nice sense of style.
  7. adj. Done with delicacy and skill: a nice bit of craft.
  8. adj. Used as an intensive with and: nice and warm.
  9. adj. Obsolete Wanton; profligate: "For when mine hours/Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives/Of me for jests” ( Shakespeare).
  10. adj. Obsolete Affectedly modest; coy: "Ere . . . /The nice Morn on th' Indian steep,/From her cabin'd loop-hole peep” ( John Milton).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Ignorant; weak; foolish.
  2. Trivial; unimportant.
  3. Fastidious; very particular or scrupulous; dainty; difficult to please or satisfy; exacting; squeamish.
  4. Discriminating; critical; discerning; acute.
  5. Characterized by exactness, accuracy, or precision; formed or performed with precision or minuteness and exactness of detail; accurate; exact; precise: as, nice proportions; nice calculations or workmanship.
  6. Fine; delicate; involving or demanding scrupulous care or consideration; subtle; difficult to treat or settle.
  7. Delicate; soft; tender to excess; hence, easily influenced or injured.
  8. Modest; coy; reserved.
  9. Pleasant or agreeable to the senses; delicate; tender; sweet; delicious; dainty; as, a nice bit; a nice tint.
  10. Pleasing or agreeable in general. Elegant or tasteful; affording or fitted to afford pleasure; pleasing; pleasant: often used with some implication of contempt.
  11. Agreeable; pleasant; good: applied to persons.
  12. [Nice in this sense is very common in colloquial use as a general epithet of approbation applicable to anything that pleases.]
  13. Synonyms Nice., Dainty, Fastidious, Squeamish, finical, delicate, exquisite, effeminate, fussy. Nice is the most general of the first four words; it suggests careful choice: as, he is nice in his language and in his dress; it is rarely used of overwrought delicacy. Dainty is stronger than nice, and ranges from a commendable particularity to fastidiousness: as, to be dainty in one's choice of clothes or company; a dainty virtue. Fastidious almost always means a somewhat proud or haughty particularity; a fastidious person is hard to please, because he objects to minute points or to some point in almost everything. Squeamish is founded upon the notion of feeling nausea; hence it means fastidious to an extreme, absurdly particular.
  14. Definite, rigorous, strict.
  15. Accurate, Correct, Exact, etc. See accurate.
  16. Luscious, savory, palatable.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Silly, ignorant; foolish. [14th-17th c.]
  2. adj. Particular in one's conduct; scrupulous, painstaking. [from 14th c.]
  3. adj. Particular as regards rules or qualities; strict. [16th-19th c.]
  4. adj. Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle. [from 16th c.]
  5. adj. Doubtful, as to the outcome; risky. [16th-19th c.]
  6. adj. Respectable; virtuous. [from 18th c.]
  7. adj. Pleasant, satisfactory. [from 18th c.]
  8. adj. Of a person: friendly, attractive. [from 18th c.]
  9. adj. With "and", having intensive effect: extremely. [from 18th c.]
  10. adv. Nicely.
  11. interj. Used to signify a job well done.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Foolish; silly; simple; ignorant; also, weak; effeminate.
  2. adj. Of trifling moment; unimportant; trivial.
  3. adj. Overscrupulous or exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious in small matters.
  4. adj. Delicate; refined; dainty; pure.
  5. adj. Apprehending slight differences or delicate distinctions; distinguishing accurately or minutely; carefully discriminating.
  6. adj. Done or made with careful labor; suited to excite admiration on account of exactness; evidencing great skill; exact; fine; finished; ; exactly or fastidiously discriminated; requiring close discrimination.
  7. adj. Pleasing; agreeable; gratifying; delightful; good.
  8. adj. Pleasant; kind.
  9. adj. Well-mannered; well-behaved.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous
  2. adj. done with delicacy and skill
  3. n. a city in southeastern France on the Mediterranean; the leading resort on the French Riviera
  4. adj. pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance
  5. adj. excessively fastidious and easily disgusted
  6. adj. exhibiting courtesy and politeness

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, foolish, from Old French, from Latin nescius, ignorant, from nescīre, to be ignorant; see nescience.

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • ruzuzu "4. Squeamish; nice."
    --from the Century Dictionary definition for ungodly Mar 20, 2011

  • bilby It is nice. Though you could always try somewhere nicer. Dec 21, 2009

  • Jubjub I suppose I'm really not supposed to be here. Although it looks rather... uh, nice. Dec 21, 2009

  • fbharjo from the old French meaning silly or stupid: in the 18th century it meant delightful and agreeable that is a meaning almost the opposite: The compass needle of its meaning gyrates wildly: see my comment below from two years ago Sep 7, 2009

  • ambyellen a word which describes the accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter May 23, 2009

  • frindley I prefer to make a nice distinction. Oct 2, 2008

  • yarb ...we exchanged books with them,-- a practice very common among ships in foreign ports, by which you get rid of the books you have read and re-read, and a supply of new ones in their stead, and Jack is not very nice as to their comparative value.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 25 Sep 9, 2008

  • uselessness Good thing I'm not interested in being nice, then. What are the attributes of freaking awesome? :-) Jun 22, 2007

  • jennarenn One of the attributes of nice is knowing when to keep your mouth shut. :P Jun 22, 2007

  • reesetee Italics is a nice word too. ;-) Jun 22, 2007

  • uselessness Old-school italics: <i>text goes here</i>
    New-school italics: <em>text goes here</em>
    They both look the same, but the second one is XHTML compliant, so that's what I use. Both should work on this site though.

    Having never spoken girl talk, my outsider's opinion is that all y'all must be awfully shallow and catty to one another if you depend on the word nice to have conversation. Jun 22, 2007

  • jennarenn Oh, nice encompasses all the characteristics a boy requires to date your friend. I don't care about the Stepford Wives, although I would like to know how to use italics (hint hint). Girl talk simply cannot survive without nice. Jun 22, 2007

  • fbharjo a fascinating word etymologically: Its meaning has turned almost 180 degrees and constantly -consistently- wa(i)vers depending on its contextual usage. It puts the "tack" in tacky Jun 22, 2007

  • uselessness If you don't think about it, this is a nice word. See?

    But if you do think about it, ugh. It's like The Stepford Wives or something. The shallowest and most deceptive compliment known to man. Evil to the core. Dec 11, 2006

  • andrew.simone An insidious and dismissive word. Dec 11, 2006

‘nice’ has been looked up 4071 times, loved by 2 people, added to 48 lists, commented on 15 times, and has a Scrabble score of 6.