Nails

How to spell nails

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce nails

What does nails mean?

1. nounSmall pointed metal spikes driven into wood or other material to hold things together.
2. nounThe hard protective coverings on the tips of the fingers and toes.
3. verbFastens with nails, or informally manages to do something perfectly.

Nails in a sentence

• noun

  He kept a jar of bent nails in the shed for emergency repairs.

• noun

  She painted her nails a deep shade of red before the wedding.

• verb

  She nails every audition because she rehearses for weeks.

• noun

  The carpenter drove a row of nails along the edge of the deck.

• noun

  Biting your nails during stressful meetings is a hard habit to break.

• verb

  He nails the loose floorboard back into place each winter.

Where does nails come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural and third-person form of 'nail', which comes from the Old English 'nægel', a native Germanic word that meant both the horny covering at the tip of a finger or toe and a small metal spike used for fastening. The same root runs through other Germanic languages, including the Dutch 'nagel' and the German 'Nagel', all going back to a shared ancestor that referred to a claw or finger-end. The two meanings, the body part and the metal fastener, sat side by side from the very beginning, probably because an early metal spike resembled a claw or talon in shape. Over the centuries the verb sense grew up alongside the nouns, first meaning to fasten something with nails and later, in informal speech, to catch, hit, or achieve something perfectly. The spelling stays pleasingly regular: the long 'a' sound is written 'ai', so the only real care needed is the plain plural '-s'.

How the word is built

• nail (Old English nægel: claw, metal pin)
• -s (plural / third-person verb ending)