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:
His miniature fingernail polish paintings of everyday objects — a purse, a lipstick tube, a stiletto — are equal parts playful and macabre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
Ortiz says an Arlington police detective called him and asked what fingernail polish Cynthia had been wearing when she disappeared.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
When used together, these ingredients produced a formula that allowed a smartphone to register a fingernail touch, marking an important early success.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2026
Hewlett had detected metal buried inside some gravel—digging it up, he found a chunk of gold about half the size of his pinkie fingernail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025
The sound was of a fingernail on glass.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
He scraped the bottom of the pool with his fingernails and provided a few treatment tips of his own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 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
“As a matter of fact, it is” Ekon pretended to inspect his fingernails.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
