Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Pleasing and agreeable in nature: had a nice time.
- adj. Having a pleasant or attractive appearance: a nice dress; a nice face.
- adj. Exhibiting courtesy and politeness: a nice gesture.
- adj. Of good character and reputation; respectable.
- adj. Overdelicate or fastidious; fussy.
- adj. Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle: a nice distinction; a nice sense of style.
- adj. Done with delicacy and skill: a nice bit of craft.
- adj. Used as an intensive with and: nice and warm.
- adj. Obsolete Wanton; profligate: "For when mine hours/Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives/Of me for jests” ( Shakespeare).
- 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
- Ignorant; weak; foolish.
- Trivial; unimportant.
- Fastidious; very particular or scrupulous; dainty; difficult to please or satisfy; exacting; squeamish.
- Discriminating; critical; discerning; acute.
- 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.
- Fine; delicate; involving or demanding scrupulous care or consideration; subtle; difficult to treat or settle.
- Delicate; soft; tender to excess; hence, easily influenced or injured.
- Modest; coy; reserved.
- Pleasant or agreeable to the senses; delicate; tender; sweet; delicious; dainty; as, a nice bit; a nice tint.
- Pleasing or agreeable in general. Elegant or tasteful; affording or fitted to afford pleasure; pleasing; pleasant: often used with some implication of contempt.
- Agreeable; pleasant; good: applied to persons.
- [Nice in this sense is very common in colloquial use as a general epithet of approbation applicable to anything that pleases.]
- 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.
- Definite, rigorous, strict.
- Accurate, Correct, Exact, etc. See accurate.
- Luscious, savory, palatable.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, computing, Unix To run a process with a specified (usually lower) priority.
- adv. colloquial Nicely.
- interj. Used to signify a job well done.
- interj. Used to signify approval.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Foolish; silly; simple; ignorant; also, weak; effeminate.
- adj. obsolete Of trifling moment; unimportant; trivial.
- adj. Overscrupulous or exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious in small matters.
- adj. Delicate; refined; dainty; pure.
- adj. Apprehending slight differences or delicate distinctions; distinguishing accurately or minutely; carefully discriminating.
- 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.
- adj. Loosely & Colloquially Pleasing; agreeable; gratifying; delightful; good.
- adj. Pleasant; kind.
- adj. Well-mannered; well-behaved.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous
- adj. done with delicacy and skill
- n. a city in southeastern France on the Mediterranean; the leading resort on the French Riviera
- adj. pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance
- adj. excessively fastidious and easily disgusted
- adj. exhibiting courtesy and politeness
Etymologies
- From Middle English nice, nyce, nys, from Old French nice, niche, nisce ("simple, foolish, ignorant"), from Latin nescius ("ignorant, not knowing"); compare nescire ("to know not, be ignorant of"), from ne ("not") + scire ("to know"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, foolish, from Old French, from Latin nescius, ignorant, from nescīre, to be ignorant; see nescience. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bold is like any other BlackBerry except is has nice speakers..oohhhh…..nice speakers, who cares!”
“Hey cake luks so nice wish i can hv one..nice blog u have..”
“Ashwini..nice ideas and thanks for link they are really usefula nd attractive to food lovers at any party.thanks for sharing nice recipe and tips”
“It'll be nice for you, too," said Mrs. Banks, with a side glance at the housekeeper; "you'll have somebody to look after you and take an interest in you, and strangers can't be expected to do that even if they're _nice_.”
“Find a nice girl -- of course a _nice_ girl -- with a fortune large enough to put you back in your proper sphere; and it doesn't matter about me.”
“O papa! it has been such a nice, _nice_ evening!" she said, as she bade him good-night; "so like the dear old times I used to have with Miss Rose, only --”
“O papa! such a nice, _nice_ home as you have made for us!" exclaimed”
“I know that the nice value of a process is basically it's priority and I think a high nice% means the CPU time is taken running task (s) with high nice value (low priority).”
“pear, almond & yogurt..nice combination & healthy too.. nice photos..”
“p.s. nice article in Sept. RT mag..nice surprise for me to see you featured in it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nice’.
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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Capitonyms or capitonyms
Capitonyms are, properly, words which change meaning and sound when they change case. This particular list may also erringly include words which change meaning, but not sound. These are improper. S...
Turkey, turkey, China, china, August, august, Bill, bill, Catholic, catholic, Ionic, ionic and 94 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Warmer Weather report.
Yay, it's no longer raining (130 words) and snowing (600 words).
spring-ish, warm, overcast, dog days, heat wave, heat-wave, simmering, balmy, muggy, sunny, nice, clear skies and 2 more...
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GAHHHHH!!!
you see, i like this boy, but, he doesnt want a ..., and this other gi..., as well, and her, boobs, are bigger than mine, and he likes boobs, and i think she l..., and now hes spend... and 47 more...
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Words that sound nice
I can't say exactly what makes these words sound so harmonious...the finely balanced distribution of consonants and vowels? the lack of harsh sounds? the regal elegance of Latin roots? anyway...
felicity, luminous, caliper, amatory, valedictorian, sanatorium, nice, chrysalis, luminosity, luminescence, senescence, evanescence and 6 more...
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Riley's list
Adjectives to describe Riley.
amazing, awesome, smart, nice, modest, genius, intense, the best, great, suave, narcissistic
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Overused Words
GRRRR
about, like, very, awesome, good, cause, go, hard, bored, sweet, nice, cool and 3 more...
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180 ° words
words that have different meanings that are diametrically opposed to each other: some have changed their meaning to be the complete opposite over the course of time and evolving usage: also could b...
fetch, brook, nice, awful, brave, naughty, bully, amuse, bead, fast, cleave, dry drip and 3 more...
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Capitonyms, capitonyms
Words that change meaning when capitalized
worms, welsh, turkey, time, tangier, tang, slough, seat, scotch, scone, said, russian and 70 more...
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That's nice.
nice, kind, agreeable, good-natured, pleasing, kind-hearted, sweet, simnel, gracious, percaline, manzanilla, kincob and 8 more...
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Resident Pipsiculturalist Makes Huge ...
See comments on pipsiculture and homosexuality, which have nothing to do with each other except that I read comments on them at around the same time on the same day.
See also the list ...heterosexuality, homosexuality, agriculture, argumentative, that, article, thus, make, do, the, interesting, like and 106 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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summer words 2009
how many words can I make mine this summer?
largess, hoyden, catholic, fornicatress, quean, slattern, bildungsroman, sybaritic, descresent, nodus, frittle, callipygian and 529 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nice.
ruzuzu There's a bit of danger involved with the "somehow better for you" bit, though. Here's a link to a New York Times Magazine article about the need for critics: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/a-critic-makes-the-case-for-critics.html?_r=2 The author, Dwight Garner, says, "I’m a professional book critic, someone who is paid, week in and week out, to take some of those shots. It’s a job that mostly suits my temperament. I like people — artists and civilians — who aren’t rude or censorious but who aren’t mush-mouthed either. Since childhood I’ve been a loather of America’s feel-good, everyone-on-tiptoes culture. Give me some straight talk. Give me a little humor. Give me something real. Above all, give me an argument." (I'm not entirely sure, but that argument is probably a logical or philisophical argument, rather than a fight.) So, sure, it's possible to criticize something in such a way that it's "better for you" because maybe you can fix some flaws. But sometimes that sort of kindness seems mean. My hometown newspaper used to have a critic who'd review children's dance and theater productions. He was often right about how poor the productions were, but I can't help but wonder how many kids just stopped trying after reading his brutal reviews. Aug 20, 2012
bilby Maybe it's like freshly baked white bread, and wholegrain. Both are pleasant but the latter has more nutrients. Aug 20, 2012
ruzuzu I keep running into people for whom there's a big difference between being "nice" and being "kind." I think the theory is that being "nice" just means being polite, but being "kind" means saying hard truths that might seem rude but are somehow better for you. Aug 20, 2012
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