pleasing; agreeable; delightful.
a nice visit.
amiably pleasant; kind.
They are always nice to strangers.
characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy.
nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.
showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, as instruments.
a job that requires nice measurements.
minute, fine, or subtle.
a nice distinction.
having or showing delicate, accurate perception.
a nice sense of color.
refined in manners, language, etc..
Nice people wouldn't do such things.
virtuous; respectable; decorous.
a nice girl.
suitable or proper.
That was not a nice remark.
carefully neat in dress, habits, etc.
(especially of food) dainty or delicate.
having fastidious, finicky, or fussy tastes.
They're much too nice in their dining habits to enjoy an outdoor barbecue.
Obsolete. coy, shy, or reluctant.
Obsolete. unimportant; trivial.
Obsolete. wanton.
nice and, sufficiently.
It's nice and warm in here.
make nice, to behave in a friendly, ingratiating, or conciliatory manner.
pleasant or commendable
a nice day
kind or friendly
a nice gesture of help
good or satisfactory
they made a nice job of it
subtle, delicate, or discriminating
a nice point in the argument
precise; skilful
a nice fit
rare fastidious; respectable
he was not too nice about his methods
obsolete
foolish or ignorant
delicate
shy; modest
wanton
pleasingly
it's nice and cool
The semantic history of nice is quite varied, as the etymology and the obsolete senses attest, and any attempt to insist on only one of its present senses as correct will not be in keeping with the facts of actual usage. If any criticism is valid, it might be that the word is used too often and has become a cliché lacking the qualities of precision and intensity that are embodied in many of its synonyms.
Nice is the most famous resort of the French Riviera.
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English: “foolish, stupid,” from Old French: “silly, simple,” from Latin nescius “ignorant, incapable,” equivalent to ne- negative prefix + sci- (stem of scīre “to know”; see science) + -us adjective suffix
From French, ( Provençal Niça ), from Latin Nīcaea, from Greek Nīkaía, proper noun use of adjective nīkaía “victorious,” from nī́kē “victory”
To be nice is to be pleasant and good-natured. Polite people and sunny days are nice. Nice people and situations are enjoyable and don't cause problems. If you say something rude (or honest) to your sibling, your parents might say "Be nice!" This word is a little vague and overused. Like interesting, it's hard to know what people really mean when they say nice. One meaning is easier to figure out: if you score a goal in hockey, that was a nice shot. That means you were skillful and did well — you shot the puck nicely.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Sometimes it just doesn't look nice and it gets crowded," she said.
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
“I think it’s nice that people are so hopeful,” she said, adding that the positivity had surprised her.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
"Life was pretty nice during the Ediacaran, so the need for sex was rather limited," said lead author Dr. Emily Mitchell from Cambridge's Department of Zoology.
From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026
“That’s why, when I get out of those planes, I walk nice and slowly. I’m not looking to set any speed records.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
“You were nice to her,” she said, coming out of nowhere.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
