Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality of showing or requiring careful, precise treatment.
  • noun Delicacy of character or feeling; fastidiousness; scrupulousness.
  • noun A fine point, small detail, or subtle distinction.
  • noun An elegant or refined feature; an amenity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Ignorance; folly; foolishness; triviality.
  • noun Fastidiousness; extreme or excessive delicacy; squeamishness.
  • noun Nice discrimination; delicacy of perception; acuteness.
  • noun A nice distinction; a refinement; a subtlety; a fine-drawn point or criticism.
  • noun Delicacy; exactness; accuracy; precision.
  • noun A dainty or delicacy; something rare or choice: usually in the plural.
  • noun Nice appearance; agreeableness of appearance

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being nice (in any of the senses of that word.).
  • noun Delicacy or exactness of perception; minuteness of observation or of discrimination; precision.
  • noun A delicate expression, act, mode of treatment, distinction, or the like; a minute distinction.
  • noun with great exactness or accuracy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small detail that is nice or polite to have but isn't necessary.
  • noun Subtlety or precision of use.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun conformity with some esthetic standard of correctness or propriety
  • noun a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English nicete, silliness, exactitude, from Old French, silliness, from nice, silly; see nice.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English nicetee, from Old French niceté ("simpleness, foolishness"), from nice ("simple, foolish"); see nice.

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Examples

  • That kind of diplomatic nicety from the Russians was so surprising that Clay immediately sent a “Confidential” cable to Washington saying: “Soviet courtesy of this type is so unusual that I attach significance to it as a possible preliminary move to a settlement which would be intended to prevent West German government.”

    Daring Young Men RICHARD REEVES 2010

  • Note: All this scrupulous nicety is at variance with the decision of St. Paul about meat offered to idols, 1 Cor. x.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • “To a nicety, that is my opinion, now that you put it so clearly, sir.”

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Then comes the difficult task of felling the trees between the rows of coffee, a work of great nicety, which is partly effected by the final stroke of the axe, and partly by hauling a rope attached to the top of the tree.

    Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore 1875

  • "To a nicety, that is my opinion, now that you put it so clearly, sir."

    Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale 1862

  • One thing that may or may not be a nicety is the Organizer, which keeps a list of projects, code repositories, and iOS devices for testing.

    Ars Technica John Timmer 2011

  • Another nicety is the way that it holds the iPad itself.

    Gear Live 2010

  • Another nicety is the brand's Magic Motion zapper.

    Crave at CNET UK 2010

  • Another nicety is the way that it holds the iPad itself.

    Gear Live 2010

  • But, Fenty said, no "nicety" would have convinced the council to extend the program.

    Fenty pledges to 'change some things' in TV debate 2010

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