Adjacent Words

Nicety definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NICETY, n.
1. Niceness; delicacy of perception.
2. Excess of delicacy; fastidiousness; squeamishness.
So love doth lothe disdainful nicety.
3. Minute difference; as the niceties of words.
4. Minuteness of observation or discrimination; precision. The connoisseur judges of the beauties of a painting with great nicety.
5. Delicate management; exactness in treatment.
Love such nicety requires. One blast will put out all his fires.
6. Niceties, in the plural, delicacies for food; dainties.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: conformity with some esthetic standard of correctness or propriety; "it was performed with justness and beauty" [syn: justness, rightness, nicety]
2: a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude; "without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy the humor"; "don't argue about shades of meaning" [syn: nuance, nicety, shade, subtlety, refinement]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Etymology: Middle English nicete, from Anglo-French niceté foolishness, from nice, adjective Date: 14th century 1. the quality or state of being nice 2. an elegant, delicate, or civilized feature <enjoy the niceties of life> 3. a fine point or distinction ; subtlety <the niceties of table manners> 4. careful attention to details ; delicate exactness ; precision 5. delicacy of taste or feeling ; fastidiousness

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a subtle distinction or detail. 2 precision, accuracy. 3 intricate or subtle quality (a point of great nicety). 4 (in pl.) a minutiae; fine details. b refinements, trimmings. Phrases and idioms: to a nicety with exactness. Etymology: ME f. OF niceté (as NICE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nicety Ni"ce*ty, n.; pl. Niceties. [OE. nicet['e] foolishness.] 1. The quality or state of being nice (in any of the senses of that word.). The miller smiled of her nicety. --Chaucer. 2. Delicacy or exactness of perception; minuteness of observation or of discrimination; precision. 3. A delicate expression, act, mode of treatment, distinction, or the like; a minute distinction. The fineness and niceties of words. --Locke. To a nicety, with great exactness or accuracy.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(niceties) The niceties of a situation are its details, especially with regard to good manners or the appropriate behaviour for that situation. By the end of term, girls will have learnt the niceties of dinner party conversation... He wasted no time with social niceties. N-COUNT: usu pl, oft the N of n, adj N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Accuracy, exactness, precision, truth, niceness. 2. Fastidiousness, daintiness, squeamishness. 3. Subtilty, nice point, minute distinction. 4. Delicacy, dainty, tidbit, delicate morsel.

Moby Thesaurus

absoluteness, accuracy, acquired taste, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciation of excellence, appreciativeness, artistic judgment, attention to detail, attention to fact, care for truth, choiceness, circumstantiality, civilized taste, civilizedness, connoisseurship, conscientiousness, correctness, critical niceness, criticality, criticalness, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, daintiness, delicacy, delicate distinction, delicateness, detail, differentia, differential, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, distinction, elegance, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, excellence, exquisiteness, faithfulness, fastidiousness, faultlessness, feel, feeling, fidelity, fine palate, fine point, fineness, finesse, finicality, finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, flawlessness, fussiness, good taste, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, hairline, judiciousness, literalism, literality, literalness, making distinctions, margin, mathematical precision, meticulousness, minuteness, narrow margin, nice distinction, niceness, niceness of distinction, nuance, palate, particle of difference, particularity, particularness, perfection, point of difference, polish, preciseness, precisianism, precision, punctiliousness, punctuality, quality, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, right, rightness, rigidity, rigidness, rigor, rigorousness, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, selectiveness, sense, sensibility, sensitivity, severity, shade of difference, sophistication, strictness, subtle distinction, subtlety, tact, tactfulness, taste, tastefulness, textualism, the letter, wide margin