nugget

1 a small piece or quantity of food <nuggets of beef in the chow mein> <fried chicken nuggets> Synonyms bite, mouthful, nibble, morsel, taste, tidbit (also titbit)Related Words collop, medallion, noisette; nosh, snack; appetizer, canapé, hors d'oeuvre; bit, chew, crumb, dab, dribble, driblet, fleck, hint, mote, nubbin, particle, pinch, scrap, scruple, shred, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), snip, snippet, speck, spot, sprinkling, suspicion, tittle, touch, trace; dash, drop; lap, lick; gulp, swallow, swig

2 a small uneven mass <a nugget of gold> Synonyms blob, chunk, clod, clot, clump, dollop, glob, gob, gobbet, hunk, knob, nub, nubble, lump, wadRelated Words bead, drop, globule; block, body, bulk; particle, piece, portion; bit, chip, crumb, granule, morsel, nubbin, patch, scrap

3 a very small piece <a seemingly inconsequential nugget of information that proved to be the key to cracking the case> Synonyms atom, crumb, dribble, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, bit, particle, patch, scrap, scruple, snip, snippet, speck, tittleRelated Words ace, dab, dash, driblet, drop, fraction, haet [chiefly Scottish], halfpenny, ha'penny, iota, jot, kenning [chiefly Scottish], lick, minim, mite, modicum, nutshell, ounce, pinch, shred, smatter, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), spot, strain, streak, suspicion, taste, touch, trace, whisper, whit; bite, mouthful, nibble, tidbit (also titbit); fragment, part, portion, section; chip, flake, shard, shiver, sliver, splinter; clipping, paring, shaving; smithereensNear Antonyms chunk, gob, hunk, lump, slab; abundance, barrel, bucket, bushel, deal, heaps, loads, mass, mountain, peck, pile, pot, profusion, quantity, raft, scads, stack, volume, wad, wealth