fingernail

noun

fin·​ger·​nail ˈfiŋ-gər-ˌnāl 

ˌfiŋ-gər-ˈnāl

: the nail of a finger

Examples of fingernail in a Sentence

I trimmed and filed my fingernails.

He had dirt under his fingernails.

Recent Examples on the Web

One asks prosecutors to turn over for testing at a private lab DNA found under his wife’s fingernails that investigators said was from an unknown and unrelated man. — ABC News, 29 June 2026

Another pretrial motion asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. — Jeffrey Collins, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2026

The semiconductor giant says it's now managed to cram nearly 100 billion tiny transistors on to a chip the size of a human fingernail. — Abhimanyu Ghoshal, New Atlas, 26 June 2026

The company said the chip packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a device roughly the size of a fingernail, almost doubling the transistor density of IBM’s 2 nm chip announced in 2021. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 25 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fingernail

• abigail
• cottontail
• countervail
• martingale
• mesoscale
• microscale
• monorail
• nanoscale
• ponytail
• swallowtail
• wensleydale
• yellowtail

Kids Definition

fingernail

noun

fin·​ger·​nail ˈfiŋ-gər-ˌnāl 

ˌfiŋ-gər-ˈnā(ə)l

: the nail of a finger

Medical Definition

fingernail

noun

fin·​ger·​nail ˈfiŋ-gər-ˌnāl, ˌfiŋ-gər-ˈnā(ə)l 

: the nail of a finger