nickel
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nickel¹
- /ˈnɪk.əl/
Rhymes with -ɪkəl
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.
noun nickels
- A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
-
A coin worth 5 cents.
That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!
Similar: jitney
- Five dollars.
- Five hundred dollars.
- Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the West Coast of the United States.
- A playing card with the rank of five.
- A five-year prison sentence.
- A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more-common four.
- An airborne propaganda leaflet. Colonel Hazeltine still had trouble persuading air commanders to drop the nickels. Pilots profanely protested against risking their necks on such foolishness. But in the end 15,000,000 leaflets a week were being dropped on Sicily and Italy.
adjective
-
Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.
Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.
Similar: sixpenny, tinhorn, two a penny, bargainous, brand X, budget, cheap, cheapie, cheapo, cheesy, competitive, dime a dozen
verb nickels · nickeling · nickelling · nickeled · nickelled
- To plate with nickel.
- To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda. The 422d Bombardment Squadron extended the scope of its operations considerably in April and "attacked" Norwegian targets with the leaflet bomb. The number of cities nickeled per mission also increased until it was common for fifteen to twenty-five to be scheduled as targets for a five-plane mission
Nickel²
Where it comes from
One of the variant spellings of Nichol, a Middle English vernacular form of the given name Nicholas.
proper noun
- A surname originating as a patronymic.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: ni, priced, cadmium, zinc, cupro, gold, mine, nail, brilliant, metals, room, piece, dime, shilling, penny, hundred
Translations
Every language
noun element
| Español | níquel |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 니켈 nikel |
| 日本語 | ニッケル nikkeru |
| 中文 | 鎳 /镍 niè |
| हिन्दी | रूपक rūpak, निकल nikal |
| Kiswahili | nikeli |
| Português | níquel |
| Français | nickel |
| Deutsch | Nickel |
| Italiano | nichel, nickelio |
| Ελληνικά | νικέλιο nikélio |
| Română | nichel |
| Русский | ни́кель níkelʹ |
| Tiếng Việt | nikel |
| العربية | نِيكِل nīkil |
| עברית | ניקל nikl |
noun coin
| 日本語 | 5セント 5-Sento |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 五分錢 /五分钱 wǔ fēn qián |
| Kiswahili | kitano |
| Português | níquel |
| Français | pièce de cinq cents |
| Italiano | moneta di cinque centesimi, nichelino |
| Русский | моне́та в пять центов pjatʹ |
verb to plate with nickel
| Español | niquelar |
|---|---|
| Português | niquelar |
| Français | nickeler |
| Deutsch | vernickeln |
| Română | nichela |
| Русский | никелирова́ть nikelirovátʹ |
Talk about this word "nickel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nickel. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. nickel. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nickel "nickel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nickel.Cite this
@misc{nickel_2026,
title = {nickel},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nickel},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
