nickel.
A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
Meaning & usage
A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
A coin worth 5 cents.
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.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Ancient Greek νῑ́κη (nī́kē) Proto-Hellenic *lāwós Ancient Greek λᾱός (lāós) Ancient Greek Νῑκόλᾱος (Nīkólāos)bor. Latin Nīcolāusbor. German Nikolaus German Nickelbor. English nickel 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.
Synonym of cheap: Low price and/or low value.
Let me give you the nickel tour of the office.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Ancient Greek νῑ́κη (nī́kē) Proto-Hellenic *lāwós Ancient Greek λᾱός (lāós) Ancient Greek Νῑκόλᾱος (Nīkólāos)bor. Latin Nīcolāusbor. German Nikolaus German Nickelbor. English nickel 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.
To plate with nickel.
To distribute airborne leaflet propaganda.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Ancient Greek νῑ́κη (nī́kē) Proto-Hellenic *lāwós Ancient Greek λᾱός (lāós) Ancient Greek Νῑκόλᾱος (Nīkólāos)bor. Latin Nīcolāusbor. German Nikolaus German Nickelbor. English nickel 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.
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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.