nib

English · Français · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

nib^¹

/nɪb/

Rhymes with -ɪb

Where it comes from

From a variant of neb, perhaps due to association with nibble.

noun nibs · knib

The tip of a pen or tool that touches the surface, transferring ink to paper. Slowly welling from the point of her gold nib, pale blue ink dissolved the full stop; for there her pen stuck; her eyes fixed, and tears slowly filled them.
dialectal A bird's beak.
Similar: bill, pecker
Bits of trapped dust or other foreign material that form imperfections in painted or varnished surfaces.
A piece of a roasted, hulled cocoa bean.
A small and pointed thing or part; a point; a prong. the little nib or fructifying principle
One of the handles projecting from a scythe snath.
Similar: thole
The shaft of a wagon.

verb nibs · nibbing · nibbed · knib

transitive To fit (a pen) with a nib. In nibbing the pen, place the inside of the point flat upon the nail of your left-hand thumb (holding the quill between the first and second finger of that hand), and let the whole length of the split be extended thereon, to steady the pen as much as possible […]

NIB^²

noun NIBs

abbreviation, initialism, slang Initialism of newly initiated brother
abbreviation sodium-ion battery; Abbreviation of Na-ion battery (Na is the chemical symbol for sodium.)
Similar: SIB

adjective

abbreviation, not comparable Abbreviation of new in box: Of a product that is the subject of a consumer sale: new and still in its original packaging; not used.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: bill, beak, neb, penpoint, gni, gnp, gdp, nbi, bni, knib, nib pen, nibber, felt-tip pen, marker pen, felt-tip, stub

Translations

Every language

noun tip of a pen

Español	plumilla, plumín, pluma
한국어	펜촉 penchok
日本語	ペン先 pensaki
中文	鋼筆尖 /钢笔尖 gāngbǐjiān, 筆尖 /笔尖 bǐjiān
हिन्दी	क़त qat, जीभी jībhī, जीभ jībh, डंक ḍaṅk
Português	ponta
Français	plume
Deutsch	Federspitze
Italiano	punta, pennino
Ελληνικά	μύτη πένας mýti pénas, πέννα pénna
Română	peniță
Русский	остриё пера́ ostrijó perá

noun bill of a bird

Español	pico
Português	bico
Français	bec
Deutsch	Schnabel
Italiano	rostro, becco
Русский	клюв kljuv

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"nib." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nib. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

nib. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nib

Chicago

"nib." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nib.

BibTeX

@misc{nib_2026,
  title = {nib},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nib},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

nib