adj

nice

NYS

adj

Pleasant, agreeable, or satisfactory.

"We had a really nice evening at the restaurant."

"That's a nice jacket you're wearing."

Of a person: friendly, kind, or likeable.

"The new neighbours seem really nice."

Fussy or particular, especially about small details.

"He's very nice about how his shirts are ironed."

adv

Used before another adjective as a mild intensifier meaning "pleasantly" or "quite".

"The soup was nice and hot."

How to Use Nice

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA general-purpose word for something pleasant, agreeable, or a person who is kind.

Common mistake

Considered a weak, overused word in formal or descriptive writing — try swapping in something more specific like "delightful", "considerate", or "enjoyable".

Common pairings

nice to meet you have a nice day nice and warm nice guy

Word Forms

nicer comparative, nicer comparative, niced past tense, nices singular, nicest superlative, nicest superlative

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We had a really _____ evening at the restaurant.

Etymology

From Old French nice ("foolish, simple"), from Latin nescius ("ignorant"). The word originally meant "foolish" in English and has drifted through senses like "fussy" and "precise" to today's meaning of "pleasant" — one of the biggest meaning-flips in the English language.

Synonyms

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delightful friendly kind lovely pleasant sweet

Antonyms

horrible horrid nasty awful disgusting foul nauseating putrid

Related Words

good bad kind sweet cruel beautiful bitter dirty

Rhymes for nice

ice rice mice dice vice voice price twice juice spice Alice slice

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