What does "fine" mean?
Fine champagne; French brandy.
Fine
/faɪn/ adj, adv, intj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, adv, intj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Fine champagne; French brandy.
- Grammar: fine is listed as adj, adv, intj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: amercement, absolutely, abstruse, acceptable.
- Useful contrasts: ill, awfuller, chunkiest.
- Usage evidence: You're by my side; everything's fine now.
How to use "fine"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "fine" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "fine" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "fine" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "fine" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "fine" is acting as adj, adv, intj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "amercement" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "fine", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Fine champagne; French brandy.
"We had dined at l'Avenue's, and afterward went to the Café de Versailles for coffee. We had several fines after the coffee, and I said I must be going."
- 2 A fee levied as punishment for breaking the law.
"The fine for jay-walking has gone from two dollars to thirty in the last fifteen years."
- 3 The end of a musical composition.
- 4 End; conclusion; termination; extinction. obsolete
"And secret feare, to see their fatall fine"
- 5 money extracted as a penalty wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 Something that is fine; fine particles. plural-normally
"They filtered silt and fines out of the soil."
- 7 Money paid by a tenant on the commencement of a tenancy so that their rent may be small or nominal. obsolete
- 8 The location in a musical score that indicates the end of the piece, particularly when the piece ends somewhere in the middle of the score due to a section of the music being repeated.
- 9 A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.
"To cause them to pay more rent or a gretter fyne than they haue ben acustomed to do in tyme past."
- 10 A drink that must be taken during a meal or as part of a drinking game, following an announcement that anyone who has done some (usually outrageous) deed is to be fined; similar to I have never; commonly associated with swaps; very similar to a sconce at Oxford University, though a fine is the penalty itself rather than the act of issuing it.
"Fine if you've…"
- 11 A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease. UK
Verb
- 1 To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify. transitive
"to fine gold"
- 2 To issue a fine as punishment to (someone). transitive
"She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed."
- 3 To finish; to cease. intransitive, obsolete
- 4 impose a fine on wordnet
- 5 To become finer, purer, or cleaner. intransitive
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To pay a fine. intransitive
"Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry."
- 7 To cause to cease; to stop. obsolete, transitive
- 8 record a fine as a penalty in a police record wordnet
- 9 To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.
"The tools to be used for this surface tillage are those that comminute or fine the soil most completely without compacting it or leaving it in ridges or in furrows"
- 10 To change by fine gradations.
"to fine down a ship's lines, i.e. to diminish her lines gradually"
- 11 To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration. transitive
- 12 To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off). dated, intransitive
"I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull."
Adjective
- 1 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Of superior quality.
"The tree frog that they encountered was truly a fine specimen."
- 2 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Impressively bad, inappropriate, or unsatisfactory. ironic
"You're a fine one to talk about laziness."
- 3 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory. informal
"How are you today? – Fine."
- 4 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Good-looking, attractive. informal
"That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation."
- 5 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Subtle, delicately balanced or discriminated.
"In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption."
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- 6 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Showy; overdecorated. obsolete
"1853, Matthew Arnold, Preface to The Poems of Matthew Arnold They will permit the poet to select any action he pleases, and to suffer that action to go as it will, provided he gratifies them with occasional bursts of fine writing"
- 7 Senses referring to subjective quality.; Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous.
"Thou haſt ſpoken all alreadie, vnleſſe thou canſt ſay they are married, but thou art too fine in thy euidence, therefore ſtand aſide."
- 8 Senses referring to subjective quality.; An answer often used to cover an unnecessary explanation, rather to avoid conflict or an argument. Saying "I'm fine" can be used to avoid inquiry when the speaker is not really okay.
"Do you want to talk about what happened? – [sharply, with annoyance or discomfort] I'm fine!"
- 9 Senses referring to objective quality.; Of a particular grade of quality, usually between very good and very fine, and below mint.
"The small scratch meant that his copy of “X-Men #2” was merely fine when it otherwise would have been “near mint”."
- 10 Senses referring to objective quality.; Sunny and not raining.
"If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough."
- 11 Senses referring to objective quality.; Consisting of especially minute particulates; made up of particularly small pieces.
"Grind it into a fine powder."
- 12 Senses referring to objective quality.; Particularly slender; especially thin, narrow, or of small girth.
"The threads were so fine that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see them."
- 13 Senses referring to objective quality.; Made of slender or thin filaments.
"They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh."
- 14 Senses referring to objective quality.; Having a (specified) proportion of pure metal in its composition.
"Coins nine tenths fine."
- 15 Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets.
"[…]to nudge it through the covers (or tickle it down to fine leg) for a four[…]"
- 16 Subtle; thin; tenuous. obsolete
"The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser."
Adjective
- 1 characterized by elegance or refinement or accomplishment wordnet
- 2 minutely precise especially in differences in meaning wordnet
- 3 free from impurities; having a high or specified degree of purity wordnet
- 4 being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition wordnet
- 5 of textures that are smooth to the touch or substances consisting of relatively small particles wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 thin in thickness or diameter wordnet
Adverb
- 1 Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way.
"Everything worked out fine."
- 2 Finely; elegantly; delicately. colloquial, dated, dialectal
- 3 In a manner so that the driven ball strikes the object ball so far to one side as to be barely deflected, the object ball being driven to one side.
Adverb
- 1 an expression of agreement normally occurring at the beginning of a sentence wordnet
- 2 in a delicate manner wordnet
Intj
- 1 Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement.
- 2 Expression of (typically) reluctant acceptance, without further argument or discussion, of another person's viewpoint.
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
"You're by my side; everything's fine now."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "fine"?
Common synonyms include: amercement, absolutely, abstruse, acceptable, accomplished, accurate.
How do you use "fine" in a sentence?
You're by my side; everything's fine now.
How do you pronounce "fine"?
Pronounced /faɪn/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English fin, fyn, from Old French fin (“fine, minute, exact”), of obscure origin, but probably derived from Latin fīnīre (“to finish”) or fīnis (“boundary, limit, end”), with an abstract sense of fine or thin also arising in many Romance languages (compare Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian fino). Doublet of fino.
Etymology 2
From Middle English fyn, fyne, from Old French fin, from Medieval Latin fīnis (“a payment in settlement or tax”). Doublet of fin and finis.
Etymology 3
From Italian fine (“end”). French fin. Doublet of fin and finis.
Etymology 4
From Middle English finen, fynen, from Old French finer, finir. See finish (transitive verb).
Etymology 5
* As an English surname, from the adjective fine. * As an English and Irish surname, variant of Finn. * As a German and Jewish surname, Americanized from Fein.