Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. First-rate; great: a nifty idea.
- n. A nifty person or thing, especially a clever joke.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Good in style and appearance; up to the mark.
Wiktionary
- adj. Good; a general term for anything that is good, useful or beneficial.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. informal, 1960's Very good; excellent; -- an informal term meaning about the same as groovy, sense 1.
- adj. Stylish; attractive; -- of clothing.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. very good
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They suggested inserts in nifty colors with names reminiscentof a fruit salad.”
“So, the WebOS looks nifty from the perspective of January, but does it from June?”
“The end of the world as we know it in nifty flash format.”
“Many years ago, I first picked up brush and paint and pewter miniature and set to work making something nifty from the combination.”
“MAX PAYNE: Kung Fu Edition sounds really cool ... an add on to the original Max Payne (a couple of years old already) that lets you do some serious ass kicking kung fu style in nifty bullet time!”
“I don't think these people realize that a lot of programs are not in place simply because they are "nifty" - they're things that are aimed to increase the overall wellness of the American people through education, health, and lower crime rates.”
“- spoon cake batter into tin/s. arrange extra almonds on top in nifty patterns.”
“in Washington, where Barack Obama is giving Gordon Brown what, where I come from, they call a nifty body-swerve:”
“This recent introduction to Pakistan's baffling complexities of history, enmities between Islamist groups, ethnic differences and civilian-military relations can prove daunting, not to mention time-consuming, particularly to American lawmakers looking to coin nifty sound bites on the 'Afpak' question.”
“Please explain me about the sensex and nifty, in the stock market.? the sensex and the nifty is the index of shares in india, as indian stocks go up, so does the sensex and nifty, and vice versa. en Español”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nifty’.
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Y
What a -Y does to an otherwise common, dull word
zany, waxy, wavy, arty, chewy, bony, boxy, cozy, nosy, foxy, wiry, junky and 321 more...
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Origin unknown
bamboozle, ballyhoo, banter, bludgeon, chad, cocktail, culvert, curmugeon, dildo, dude, dweeb, dyke and 51 more...
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Rad Words.
Put any Rad word, any at all.
super, rad, awesome, amazing, cool, nerdfightastic, fantastic, spectacular, groovy, funky, dishy, sick and 5 more...
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North American sports reporting
North American sports reporting seems to use vernacular to a much greater extent than its British equivalent. I think this is partly because of the stat-heavy nature of NA sports: reports would be ...
snap, dandy, author, nifty, rookie, storied, streak, ice, score a tally, shutout, blank, dish and 13 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
Just 'cause I like 'em, N
nurdled, naumachia, nystagmus, nephology, nigh, noctilucent, noctambulant, nocebo, neap, napiform, nacelle, node and 95 more...
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Words I like
There's nothing more to this list, really.
lily, defenestrate, gloaming, aesthetically, melody, translucent, semiotics, wistful, linear, origami, plethora, schadenfreude and 92 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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The History of Cool
Words that mean "cool" around the world and through the ages.
cool, awesome, wild, stylin', groovy, neat, nifty, swell, great, tubular, radical, bitchin' and 188 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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lauren_inretrospective's list
words I adore....
ethereal, luminiscent, etiquette, surreal, plumage, feathery, vintage, jubilee, rouge, satin, fathom, height and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nifty.

yarb "Anders Eriksson started the play with a nifty sidestep move at the blue line" - Vancouver Sun, 12-31-07 Jan 10, 2008
deliriumslibrarian As in, "That was." Cool Buffy ref ;) Jun 13, 2007