nickel

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

• enPR: nĭk'əl, IPA^(key): /ˈnɪk.əl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

1. (uncountable) A silvery elemental metal with an atomic number of 28 and symbol Ni.
2. (US, Canada, countable) A coin worth 5 cents.
   • 2017 October 8, John Oliver, “Confederacy”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 26, HBO:

     That is just objectively terrifying regardless of contexts! He looks like if a nickel did cocaine!

3. (US, slang, by extension) Five dollars.
4. (US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.
5. (US, slang, sometimes the nickel or the hot nickel) Interstate 5, a highway that runs along the west coast of the United States.
6. (slang) A playing card with the rank of five
7. (US, slang) A five-year prison sentence.
8. (American football) A defensive formation with five defensive backs, one of whom is a nickelback, instead of the more common four.

• kupfernickel
• niccolite
• nife
• nitinol

nickel (third-person singular simple present nickels, present participle nickeling or nickelling, simple past and past participle nickeled or nickelled)

1. (transitive) To plate with nickel.

• false copper
• garnierite
• pentlandite

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

• Nickle, inleck

• IPA^(key): /ni.kɛl/

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nickel m (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

1. (usually uncountable) nickel (metal)
2. (countable) atom of nickel

• nickelage
• nickeler

nickel (invariable)

1. (slang) spotless
2. (slang) perfect, bang on

• nickellement

• “nickel” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• Audio

  (file)

nickel n

1. nickel; a chemical element
2. a coin of small, but undetermined value

   Jag har inte en/ett nickel.

   I don't have a nickel

• (coin): inte ett nickel

• nickel in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)