Word.ws English Dictionary

nard

UK/nɑːd/US/nɑɹd/

nard noun: a flowering plant of species Nardostachys jatamansi, in the valerian family, that grows in the Himalayas and is used as a perfume, an incense, a sedative, and an herbal medicine.

nard: a flowering plant of species Nardostachys jatamansi, in the valerian family, that grows in the...
Image: Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

nard (countable and uncountable, plural nards)

  1. A flowering plant of species Nardostachys jatamansi, in the valerian family, that grows in the Himalayas and is used as a perfume, an incense, a sedative, and an herbal medicine.
    Synonyms:
    nardin, muskroot
  2. A fragrant oil from the plant, formerly much prized.
    • […]there cam a womã with an alablaſter boxe of oyntment / called narde / that was pure and coſtly / and ſhe brake the boxe ãd powred it on his heed.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Mark xiiij:[3], folio lxvj, recto
    • The Roman poet Horace refers to a lecherous old fop "scented with nard."1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 182
  3. American spikenard (Aralia racemosa), a North American perennial herb with an aromatic root.

Noun (2)

nard (plural nards)

  1. (US, plural-normally, slang) A testicle.
    • The soccer ball hit me right in the nards!
    • I’m sure whoever was in charge must have been one of the last of the Fulda Fucktards, you know, those generals who spent their nard-drop years training to defend West Germany from Ivan.2006, Max Brooks, World War Z
    Synonyms:
    ball, nut

Noun (3)

nard (uncountable)

  1. A Persian game similar to backgammon.

Proper noun capitalized: Nard

Nard

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Bernard.
  2. (obsolete) Obsolete spelling of Nart
    • "Nard", a people reported by tradition to have formerly posessed this country (Circassia).1839, James Stanislaus Bell, Journal of a Residence in Circassia during the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839

Synonyms of nard

All synonyms of nard

Forms of nard

pluralnards
alternative formnarde

Origin of nard

From Middle English narde, from Old French narde, Latin nardus, from Ancient Greek νάρδος (nárdos), from Phoenician [Term?], Sanskrit नलद (nálada, “Indian narde”). Doublet of nardus.

Alteration of nuts (“testicles”) or nads (“gonads”).

Borrowed from Persian نرد (nard)

Words formed from nard

Words that rhyme with nard

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nard

What does nard mean?
Nard means a flowering plant of species Nardostachys jatamansi, in the valerian family, that grows in the Himalayas and is used as a perfume, an incense, a sedative, and an herbal medicine.
What part of speech is nard?
Nard can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nard?
Nard is pronounced /nɑɹd/ (US).
What is the plural of nard?
The plural of nard is nards.

Words near nard in the dictionary

  1. narcotraffickers
  2. narcotrafficking
  3. narcoviolence
  4. narcoxyl
  5. narcs
  6. nard
  7. nardcore
  8. Nardella
  9. Nardellas
  10. Nardelli
  11. Nardellis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nard (page history and authors); Nard (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-au-nard.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.