Word.ws English Dictionary

nasal

/ˈneɪ.zəl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈnæɪ.zəl/

nasal adjective: of or pertaining to the nose or to the nasion. Also the ellipsis of nasal consonant.

Adjective

nasal (comparative more nasal, superlative most nasal)

  1. (relational) Of or pertaining to the nose or to the nasion.
    • Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal...2013 March, Nancy Langston, “Mining the Boreal North”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 98
    • Neffy uses the same spray device as Narcan, the naloxone nasal spray for opioid overdose, according to a spokesperson for its maker, ARS Pharmaceuticals.2024 August 9, Meg Tirrell, “First nasal spray epinephrine drug for emergency allergic reactions gets FDA approval”, in CNN
    Synonyms:
    nosely, nosey
  2. Having a sound imparted by means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng.
    • nasal vowel
  3. Characterized by resonance in the nasal passage.
    • nasal utterance
    • "Are you sure you're OK?" she said with a nasal Australian accent.2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 2
  4. Sharp, penetrating.

Noun

nasal (plural nasals)

  1. (archaic) A medicine that operates through the nose; an errhine.
  2. (historical) The part of a helmet projecting to protect the nose; a nose guard.
    • The nasal continued in use until about 1140, when it was generally discarded, but isolated examples may be found in every succeeding century down to the seventeenth.1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 78
    • Rorge had donned a black halfhelm with a broad iron nasal that made it hard to see that he did not have a nose.1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam Books, published 2011, page 463
  3. A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.

Proper noun capitalized: Nasal

Nasal

  1. An Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia

Also used as

nasal is also the ellipsis of nasal consonant.

nasal is also the ellipsis of nasal vowel.

nasal is also the ellipsis of nasal bone.

nasal meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

nasal in Hindi

नासिका

nasal in Marathi

अनुनासिक

nasal in Urdu

having a quality imparted by means of the nose
غُنّائی ġunnāī, اَنْفِی anfī
vowel or consonant
غُنَّہ ġunna, غُنَّہ پَن ġunna pan

nasal in Bengali

অনুনাসিক
More languagesFewer languages
nasal in Telugu
అనునాసికము anunāsikamu
nasal in Gujarati
અનુનાસિક
nasal in Odia
ନାସିକା, ଅନୁନାସିକ
nasal in Arabic
أَنْفِي ʔanfī
nasal in Persian
خیشومی xišumi

Examples of nasal in a sentence

  • Use an isotonic saline solution in your neti pot to prevent irritation of your nasal passages.
  • In Elvish, nasal infixion is a frequent means of forming derivatives from roots.
  • Nasal passages can congest during a cold.

All 40 example sentences with nasal

Synonyms of nasal

Forms of nasal

Adjective
comparativemore nasal
superlativemost nasal
Noun
pluralnasals

Origin of nasal

From Middle English, from Medieval Latin nāsālis, from nāsus (“the nose”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of nasalis.

Words formed from nasal

Phrases with nasal

20 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with nasal

40 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about nasal

What does nasal mean?
Nasal means of or pertaining to the nose or to the nasion.
What is nasal in Hindi?
Nasal in Hindi is नासिका. See Nasal meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is nasal?
Nasal can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nasal?
Nasal is pronounced /ˈneɪ.zəl/ (UK).

Words near nasal in the dictionary

  1. NAS
  2. NASA
  3. nasab
  4. nasabs
  5. Nasakh
  6. nasal
  7. nasal bone
  8. nasal bones
  9. nasal breathing
  10. nasal breathings
  11. nasal cannula

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nasal (page history and authors); Nasal (page history and authors); nasal (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nasal (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nasal (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nasal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nasal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-nasal.wav.

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