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nickel

UK/ˈnɪk.əl/US/ˈnɪk.əl/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,719 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: nickels

Nickel is a hard silvery metal used in coins and alloys. Nickel plating, a nickel alloy, nickel and chrome.

It resists corrosion and takes a shine, which is why it goes into stainless steel and plating; it is also the commonest cause of contact allergy, which is why cheap earrings cause trouble. In America a nickel is the five-cent coin. Note that the German name means goblin's copper, after an ore that promised copper and gave none.

Materialscientist (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of nickel

  1. 1nounnickelA hard silvery metal used in coins and alloys.B2

    “The coins are made of copper mixed with nickel.”

nickel is a metal.

Where it comes from

German Nickel is short for Kupfernickel, goblin's copper, an ore that looked like copper and yielded none.

  1. German

    Nickel

  2. English, today

    nickel

Built from

  • Kupfernickel · German — a mineral containing copper and nickel
  • Kupfer · German — copper
  • Nickel · German — insignificant person, goblin
  • Nikolaus · German — Nicholas

Borrowed from German Nickel. 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 kobold.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Materials & Substances

Practise this word

nickel in the wild

  • Use of nickel has been traced as far back as 3500 BCE.

    Nickel

  • The initial design of the Shield nickel was struck from 1866 until 1883, then was replaced by the Liberty Head nickel.

    Nickel (United States coin)

  • The Buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913 as part of a drive to increase the beauty of American coinage.

    Nickel (United States coin)

  • Barber's Liberty Head design for the nickel, and they commissioned Fraser to do the work.

    Buffalo nickel

  • The designs were approved in 1912, but were delayed several months because of objections from the Hobbs Manufacturing Company, which made mechanisms to detect slugs in nickel-operated machines.

    Buffalo nickel

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.