nosy
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does nosy mean? Nosy is used to describe someone who asks too many questions about or otherwise pries into other people’s business because they are overly curious about it. It’s especially used to describe someone who does this all the time. A much less common spelling of nosy is nosey. The related phrasal verbs nose in and stick one’s nose in mean to get into other people’s business—to pry or snoop. People who are considered nosy are known for prying, snooping, asking overly personal questions, eavesdropping (listening to other people’s conversations), and generally nosing into other people’s business. Nosy can also be used to describe such a person’s behavior and the kinds of questions they ask, as in I ignored all of his nosy questions about my medical history. Although the term implies a lack of respect for other people’s privacy, calling someone nosy is usually only mildly negative and is often somewhat playful. It’s not usually used in situations that involve serious or harmful violations of privacy. The word is sometimes used to address or refer to someone as a way of saying that they are nosy, as in Hey, nosy, quit looking in my notebook. Example: My neighbor is as nosy as they get—she always asks where I’m going when I leave and where I’ve been when I get back!
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of nosy
Explanation
Someone nosy has a hard time minding their own business. A nosy person pokes their nose into other people’s affairs. Do you know anyone who is always asking personal questions and loves to hear gossip? That person is nosy. Nosy people are a little too concerned with what other people are up to, and they tend to invade the privacy of others. A neighbor who keeps looking in your window is being nosy. Being nosy is always considered a negative trait. Nosy people are snoopy and prying.
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:
I ask this not because I’m being nosy or judgmental, but because it matters for what you do next with the funds.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
Ultrarich investors are often nosy about what their peers at other family offices are up to, and which deals they are getting a peek at.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Agatha’s mental wall dropping and letting Billy in proves she has made great strides to being more than just the nosy neighbor with a rune-laden cave in her basement.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2024
With a background in psychology Emma happily calls herself “a bit of a nosy people watcher”.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2024
I’m so loud, nosy Ms. Gladys next door probably heard me.
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
Had Bob Crimo been nosier, he might have discovered that his quiet son was quite loquacious as his online persona named Awake The Rapper.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022
On top of all that, your child may be in sensory shock: school is nosier, has different smells, fluorescent lighting, etc.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2021
Someone a little nosier would surely have pressed the exiled National Security Agency leaker on what he held back.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2014
Welcome to the world of real-time bidding, a cleverer and nosier way of selling advertising that is beginning to shake up the online media business.
From Economist ● May 5, 2011
‘Ah-haF cried the BFG, sitting up suddenly in his chair. ‘Now we is getting nosier than a parker!’
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
Ms. Shepard — a journalist who proudly described herself as “the nosiest person I know” — spent the early years of her career as a general-assignment reporter for the San Jose Mercury News.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
With its plans, the airport will phase out all traffic between midnight and 5 a.m., ban private jets and the nosiest planes and abandon a project for an additional runway.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Taken together, they conjure a detailed portrait of life in West Marin, especially the lives of its unluckiest, and nosiest, citizens.
From Slate ● May 27, 2015
Liverpool, which the King Emperor has known throughout his reign as England's second nosiest city, went down last week before Birmingham which is now the only English city except London with over 1,000.000 population.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was the nosiest woman in the world and spent most of her life spying on the boring, law-abiding neighbors.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
