nasty
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "nasty", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "nasty" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "nasty" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
nasty is anEnglishadj. It means: Dirty, filthy. Pronounced /ˈnaː.sti/. It ranks #4,966 in English word frequency. Often confused with Nat and nay.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nasty |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈnaː.sti/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,966 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nasty is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈnaː.sti/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,966 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for nasty, with forms such as "ansty", "nassty", and "nastty". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Nat", "nay", "navy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is nasty, spelled N-A-S-T-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Dirty, filthy.
- 2Contemptible, unpleasant (of a person).
- 3Objectionable, unpleasant (of a thing); repellent, offensive.
- 4Indecent or offensive; obscene, lewd.
- 5Spiteful, unkind.
- 6Awkward, difficult to navigate; dangerous.
- 7Grave or dangerous (of an accident, illness etc.).
- 8Formidable, terrific; wicked.
Etymology
From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”). Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include: * From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y. * Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”). * From Old French nastre (“lowly, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster. * Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty. * Modern use of the word is sometimes attributed to the popular and often derogatory 19th century American political cartoons of Thomas Nast, but the word predates him.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ansty,nassty,nastty,nastyy,nasyt,natsy,nnasty,nsaty
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for nasty
Misspelling Variants of "nasty"
Frequency rank: #4,966 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter N in our English index: