unguis
/ˈʌŋ.ɡwɪs/noun
unguis is a noun meaning “The nail, claw, talon, or hoof of a finger, toe, or other appendage” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled U-N-G-U-I-S, and it appears about once in every 76 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of unguis is ungues or unguises.
What does unguis mean?
noun
- 1
The nail, claw, talon, or hoof of a finger, toe, or other appendage.
- 2
One of the terminal hooks on the foot of an insect.
- 3
The slender base of a petal in some flowers; a claw; an ungula.
- 4
An old measure equal to the length of the nail of the little finger.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce unguis?
- /ˈʌŋ.ɡwɪs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-unguis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unguis
- ungues plural
- unguises plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is unguis?
Unguis appears about once in every 76 million words in written English, the 275,970th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does unguis come from?
From Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”). Doublet of onyx.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).