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Nagel

German, noun

Nagel is spelled N-A-G-E-L (5 letters) and appears 9.3 times per million words in written German, the 7,460th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Nagel is a German masculine noun meaning “A nail, the horny plate on fingers and toes of humans and certain animals which mostly consists of keratin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). In lower case, nagel is a different word: “first-person singular present”. With an umlaut, Nägel is a different word: “nominative plural of Nagel”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “Horngebilde, bestehend aus mehreren übereinander geschichteten Keratinplatten an Fingern und Fußzehen”.

What does Nagel mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    masculineA nail, the horny plate on fingers and toes of humans and certain animals which mostly consists of keratin.

    Ihre Nägel waren rot lackiert.

  2. 2

    masculineA nail, a man-made pointed fastener used for joining different materials by penetrating them.

    Häng das Bild an den Nagel dort drüben.

verb

as nagel
  1. 1

    first-person singular present

  2. 2

    singular imperative

noun

as Nägel
  1. 1

    masculinenominative plural of Nagel

  2. 2

    masculinegenitive plural of Nagel

  3. 3

    masculineaccusative plural of Nagel

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Horngebilde, bestehend aus mehreren übereinander geschichteten Keratinplatten an Fingern und Fußzehen 2. spitzer Metallstift zum Fixieren oder Aufhängen von Gegenständen

The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.

Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of Nagel

  • Nagels genitive
  • Nägel plural
  • Nägelchen diminutive neuter
  • Nägelein diminutive neuter
  • Näglein diminutive neuter
  • Nagerl diminutive neuter
  • Nägeln dative definite plural
  • Nägeli diminutive

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to Nagel

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is Nagel in German?

Nagel appears 9.3 times per million words in written German.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after Nagel