hangnail
/ˈhæŋneɪl/[heɪŋneɪ̯ɫ]
hangnail noun: a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail.
Noun
hangnail (plural hangnails)
- A loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail.
- Synonyms:
- agnail, backfriend
- A pointed upper corner of the toenail (often created by improperly trimming by rounding the corner) that, as the nail grows, presses into the flesh or protrudes so that it may catch (“hang”) on stockings or shoes.
hangnail meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Tagalog and Arabic
hangnail in Tamil
- பெரியமுன் கூடுதல் நகம்
hangnail in Kannada
- protruding piece of nail tissue or skin near base of fingernail or toenail
- ಕುಂಚ kuñca
hangnail in Tagalog
- protruding piece of nail tissue or skin near base of fingernail or toenail
- taingandaga
hangnail in Arabic
- protruding piece of nail tissue or skin near base of fingernail or toenail
- سَأْفَة saʔfa
More languagesFewer languages
- hangnail in Malay
- kuku betul
- hangnail in Persian
- ناخنریش nâxon-riš
Synonyms of hangnail
Forms of hangnail
| plural | hangnails |
|---|
Origin of hangnail
A corruption of agnail (literally “painful (anguished) nail”), by folk-etymological reanalysis as hang + nail; from Middle English agnail, from Old English angnæġl, from ang- (“tight/painful”) + næġl (“nail”). The first part is from Proto-Germanic *anguz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énǵʰus (“narrow, tight”), while the second is from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃negʰ-. The first component, ang- is also the origin of anguish, anger, and angst, while næġl is the origin of nail. Compare more "pure" Scots angernail, and similarly folk-influenced dialectal variants wrangnail and ragnail, all meaning "hangnail" and from Middle English. Cognate with Old High German ungnagel and Old Frisian angneil, o(n)gneil. Original sense of “loose strip of tissue”; the sense of “pointed corner of nail” is modern, and is connected with the reanalysis, due to stockings catching or “hanging” on the nail.
Words formed from hangnail
Questions about hangnail
- What does hangnail mean?
- Hangnail means a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail.
- What is hangnail in Tamil?
- Hangnail in Tamil is பெரியமுன் கூடுதல் நகம். See Hangnail meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is hangnail?
- Hangnail is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hangnail?
- Hangnail is pronounced /ˈhæŋneɪl/.
- What is the plural of hangnail?
- The plural of hangnail is hangnails.
Words near hangnail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hangnail (page history and authors); hangnail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-hangnail.wav.
Cite this entry: “hangnail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hangnail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.