nigh

American  

[nahy] / naɪ /

adverb

1. near in space, time, or relation.

   The time draws nigh.

2. nearly; almost; (often followed by on oronto ).

   nigh onto twenty years.

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adjective

nigher, nighest

1. near; approaching.

   Evening is nigh.

2. short or direct.

   to take the nighest route.

3. (of an animal or vehicle) being on the left side.

   to be astride the nigh horse.

4. Archaic. parsimonious; stingy.

preposition

1. near.

verb (used with or without object)

1. Archaic. to approach.

nigh British  

/ naɪ /

adjective

1. an archaic, poetic, or dialect word for near

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Other Word Forms

• unnigh
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of nigh

before 900; Middle English nigh ( e ), neye, Old English nēah, nēh, cognate with Dutch na, German nahe, Old Norse nā-, Gothic nehw, nehwa; cf. near, next

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Explanation

Nigh is an old-fashioned word that can be used as an adjective or adverb to mean near or nearly. Something that is nigh impossible — like knitting a sweater in one night — will be very difficult to accomplish. As an adjective, nigh is an older form of the word "near," both of which are rooted in the Old English word neah. People like to use the word nigh when they talk about the apocalypse: "Repent! The end is nigh." It's most common to use nigh today when you're trying to sound poetic or referencing the archaic or biblical uses of the word.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nigh nigher nighest

But when the bulls start reporting that massive stock gambling by the retail public, using levered ETFs, are a reason to be bullish, you have to start wondering if the end is nigh.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

You know the end of summer is nigh when Vail Resorts announces opening dates for its ski resorts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

After another long stretch of unrelenting news, the weekend is finally nigh.

From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding weekend is nigh, and if you’re anywhere on the internet, you already know.

From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026

But even if they wanted to share the particulars of the days toil, finding someone outside of Langley who understood what they were talking about would have been well nigh impossible.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

Or the end of the Anthropocene might be nigher than you think.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2022

“That’s nigher where it is,” said Joe; “she ain’t living.”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

All that, sir, all that; nigher thirty, I should say.

From Through Russian Snows A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Gliding over this flat surface on one’s snow-shoes almost reaches the ideal; land and home are nigher, and as one goes along one’s thoughts fly southward to everything that is beautiful.

From Farthest North Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 by Fridtjof Nansen

"I half suspect not," said he, in a low tone, and to hear which she was obliged to draw nigher to where he stood.

From Barrington Volume II (of II) by Charles James Lever

I’d hearn that the great hotel that wuz nighest to us looked by night jest like one of the fairy palaces we read about in Arabian Nights, and one night we see it.

From Samantha at Coney Island and a Thousand Other Islands by Marietta Holley

Belial: They are the nighest God, their refuge sure And Father: they upon His breast have lain: Now lies a lesser one more close than they.

From Vondel's Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel

But your land lies nighest to my farm, and it's worth more to me than anybody else.

From Cobwebs and Cables by Hesba Stretton

Every one," says Coverdale, "doth his best to be nighest to the mark.

From Early Theories of Translation by Flora Ross Amos

It comes nighest to the senses when the atoms act and react upon each other, in the flow of mighty rivers, in the leap of cataracts, in the turmoil of the sea.

From Creed And Deed A Series of Discourses by Felix Adler

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