nicety

noun

nice·ty | \ ˈnī-sə-tē

, -stē\

plural niceties

Definition of nicety

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

to a nicety

: exactly, accurately … liked doing a quiet business in which they were sure of their customers, and could calculate their returns to a nicety.— George Eliot

Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about nicety

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Examples of nicety in a Sentence

knows all the niceties of diplomatic protocol a woman too fond of the niceties of urban living to even consider becoming a farmer's wife

Recent Examples on the Web

But Riverdale feels more like a (highly entertaining) primetime soap opera, whereas Sabrina embraces full-blown horror without bowing to the niceties imposed by network television. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," 18 Dec. 2018 Finally, the crew-cab-only Ram Laramie Longhorn at $53,035 and the Limited at $55,535 both include standard niceties such as heated and reclining rear seats, a heated steering wheel, woodgrain interior trim, and a navigation system. — Greg Fink, Car and Driver, "Ram Jam: 2019 Ram 1500 Pickup Starts at $33,340," 6 Mar. 2018 At the same time, Qualcomm is promising more of its traditional strength: an incredible 25 hours of battery life, plus support for niceties like LPDDR4X memory, NVMe SSDs, USB 3.1, and four PCI Express lanes. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx for PCs aims to overcome the performance gap," 6 Dec. 2018 Gifted niceties such as ice buckets and cheese spreaders found new homes. — Bonnie S. Benwick, The Seattle Times, "Kitchen confidential: How I downsized the most important room in the house," 24 Sep. 2018 The legal niceties apart, central bankers are ill-equipped to choose inflation targets. — Amar Bhidé, WSJ, "Congress Should Set the Fed’s Inflation Target—Ideally at Zero," 6 Nov. 2018 But Trump is not one to put the niceties of the policymaking process over the partisan political needs of the moment. — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "The cynical politics of John Bolton’s “Troika of Tyranny”," 1 Nov. 2018 Some, however, have voiced reservations about how Trump — who is not known for adhering to diplomatic niceties — will deal with the delicate issue of royal etiquette and protocol. — NBC News, "Trump is set to meet the queen. Here's what he shouldn't do.," 8 July 2018 There is something to be said for his refusal to subscribe to the conventional diplomatic niceties. — Ciara Nugent, Time, "'An Unprecedented Scandal': How Newspapers Around the World Reacted to Trump's Behavior at the G-7 Summit," 11 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nicety.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.