noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The nail, claw, talon, or hoof of a finger, toe, or other appendage.
2. 2
   any rigid body structure composed primarily of keratin wordnet
3. 3
   One of the terminal hooks on the foot of an insect.
4. 4
   The slender base of a petal in some flowers; a claw; an ungula.
5. 5
   An old measure equal to the length of the nail of the little finger. historical

Synonyms

All synonyms

horny structurehorny structure

Etymology

From Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”). Doublet of onyx.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.