noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fingernail
Middle English word dating back to 1200–50; see origin at finger, nail
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Working inside a refrigerated metal chamber, she carefully adjusts a mounted tumor, roughly the size of a pinkie fingernail, toward a sharp cutting blade.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
The woman sighed, tapped her screen with a fingernail and said, “It’s right there.”
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
The Sun produces vast numbers of them: every second, billions pass harmlessly through an area the size of your fingernail.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Every second, about 65 billion neutrinos from the Sun pass through your little fingernail.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
I picked at the doorpost with a fingernail and a long splinter the size of my palm peeled away with little resistance.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
The criminals hoped the documents within would contain sensitive secrets they could use to blackmail Hughes, who sometimes spent months without leaving his home, eating only chocolate bars and milk, letting his fingernails grow long.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
The Gofar fault is a deep underwater fracture where the Pacific and Nazca tectonic plates slide past one another at roughly 140 millimeters per year, about as fast as fingernails grow.
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2026
“Keeping the dirt under my fingernails with projects like this, and watching shows as often as I do, you realize how hard and how much creativity and magic there are around shows,” Lovett said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2026
Last December his daughter, Claire, told the BBC that his teeth were rotting and his fingernails "sometimes fall off".
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
She picked at her fingernails as she thought of yet another thing to add to her list of worries.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
