nagging
nagging adjective: persistently annoying or painful. Also the present participle and gerund of nag.
Adjective (1)
nagging (comparative more nagging, superlative most nagging)
- Persistently annoying or painful.
- nagging doubt
- nagging pain
Noun
nagging (plural naggings)
- The action of the verb nag.
- After breakfast it takes a stout heart and strong nerve to tackle the burden of dishwashing, separator, milk things, disorderly house, interspersed with quarrels, naggings, and interruptions of the children[…]1998, Norah Lillian Lewis, Dear editor and friends, page 127
Adjective (2)
nagging (comparative more nagging, superlative most nagging)
- Causing persistent mild pain, or annoyance.
- Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied...2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2013, page 86
Also used as
nagging is also the present participle and gerund of nag.
Examples of nagging in a sentence
- Eventually he had learned to live with it, but he always had a nagging suspicion that he had not been good enough for his mother.2003, Christopher Paolini, “Dragon Tales”, in Eragon, page 20:
- Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2013...
Forms of nagging
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more nagging |
| superlative | most nagging |
| Noun | |
| plural | naggings |
Words formed from nagging
Questions about nagging
- What does nagging mean?
- Nagging means persistently annoying or painful.
- How do you use nagging in a sentence?
- Eventually he had learned to live with it, but he always had a nagging suspicion that he had not been good enough for his mother.
- What part of speech is nagging?
- Nagging can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near nagging in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nagging (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: En-us-nagging.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nagging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nagging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.