Minnesota nice
Minnesota nice noun: a style of pleasantness, courtesy, cooperation, and helpfulness associated with Minnesota culture; a form of Northern Plains charm.
Noun (1)
Minnesota nice (uncountable)
- A style of pleasantness, courtesy, cooperation, and helpfulness associated with Minnesota culture; a form of Northern Plains charm.
- Dr. Gibson called me in part because she knew I like to provoke, tickle, and prod. She knew I would respond yes, with Minnesota Nice, but what she really was after was my [...] New Yorker attitude...1989, Helping Learners Learn at a Distance: Fifth Annual Conference on Teaching at a Distance, Madison, Wisconsin, August 8-10, 1989, The University, page 28
- Having lived in the open land of southwest Minnesota for more than thirty years, I have learned the limits of Minnesota nice.1992, A. W. B. (Alfred William Brian) Simpson, In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention Without Trial in Wartime Britain, Oxford University Press, page 80
Adjective
Minnesota nice (not comparable)
- Pleasant, courteous, cooperative, and helpful (as associated with Minnesota culture).
- Their new anchor, or family member, as they call him, isn't resonating with the viewers, who aren't sure he's Minnesota nice2006 July 28, Brooke Gladstone, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, On the Media, WNYC
Noun (2) capitalized: Minnesota Nice
Minnesota Nice (uncountable)
- Alternative letter-case form of Minnesota nice
- Dr. Gibson called me in part because she knew I like to provoke, tickle, and prod. She knew I would respond yes, with Minnesota Nice, but what she really was after was my [...] New Yorker attitude...1989, Helping Learners Learn at a Distance: Fifth Annual Conference on Teaching at a Distance, Madison, Wisconsin, August 8-10, 1989, The University, page 28
Examples of Minnesota nice in a sentence
- Minge (pronounced with a hard G) is close to a personification of "Minnesota nice," the quiet cheerfulness and pleasantness which permeates much of life in […] much of its politics.1993, Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa, Almanac of American Politics, 1994: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors, National...
- The natives joked about Minnesota Nice, and outsiders called it conformity, but civility was in fact the norm and any rip in its fabric a vice.1997, David Lebedoff, Cleaning Up: The Exxon Valdez Case, from 3 Drinks to 5 Billion Dollars, Free Press, →ISBN, page 28:
- In Minnesota, people often call this "Minnesota nice." The intent is not to hurt anyone's feelings.1999, Rosalie T. Torres, Hallie Preskill, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations, →ISBN, page 31:
Forms of Minnesota nice
| alternative form | Minnesota Nice |
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Origin of Minnesota nice
From Minnesota + nice, coined by radio personality Garrison Keillor.
Words formed from Minnesota nice
Questions about Minnesota nice
- What does Minnesota nice mean?
- Minnesota nice means a style of pleasantness, courtesy, cooperation, and helpfulness associated with Minnesota culture; a form of Northern Plains charm.
- How do you use Minnesota nice in a sentence?
- Minge (pronounced with a hard G) is close to a personification of "Minnesota nice," the quiet cheerfulness and pleasantness which permeates much of life in […] much of its politics.
- What part of speech is Minnesota nice?
- Minnesota nice can be a noun or an adjective.
Words near Minnesota nice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Minnesota nice (page history and authors); Minnesota Nice (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Minnesota nice.wav.
Cite this entry: “Minnesota nice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/minnesota_nice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.