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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Nelke.

clove (aromatic flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum)

5 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈnɛlkə]
  1. clove (aromatic flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum)

    feminine
  2. carnation, pink (Dianthus caryophyllus) (named by analogy for its clove-like smell)

    feminine
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle Low German nēgelke(n) (“little spike, nail”), from Old Saxon nagal (“nail”). Doublet of Nägelchen and Nägelein (archaic). Low German-looking forms are already found in Middle High German negelkīn alongside negelīn; the contraction is first attested in Central German Nelekin. The feminine form in -e is a backformation from the plural. The name is due to the typical form of cloves; compare Latin clāvulus (“clove”), from clāvus (“nail”), of which the German form may be a loan translation.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.