nosy
UK/ˈnəʊziː//ˈnoʊzi/
nosy adjective: prying, inquisitive or curious in other’s affairs; tending to snoop or meddle.
Adjective
nosy (comparative nosier or more nosy, superlative nosiest or most nosy)
- Prying, inquisitive or curious in other’s affairs; tending to snoop or meddle.
- They built tall fences, yet the nosy neighbors always seemed to know everything about them.
- Before even considering such a conversation, ask yourself why you want to know, Casares advises. “Are you asking because you feel jealous of that person?” she says. “Are you asking because you also want to go on a GLP-1, or are you asking because you’re nosy and need to know what’s going on in...2026 January 29, Angela Haupt, “Can I Ask Someone if They’re on Ozempic?”, in TIME, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2026
- Having a large or elongated nose.
- "Look at you, a handsome man of thirty, with thick brown hair and a nosy nose and enormous feet and hands that can drive a team of horses or a yoke of oxen or," she hesitated in a brief shyness, and then went on, "a loving wife."1962, Paul Engle, Golden Child, page 25
- She had the same sort of handsome, square-cut features as Timothy, with the difference that her nose was small and short — it was obvious that Timothy got his thick dark hair, his brown eyes and his nosy nose from his father, that vigorous impresario who had died suddenly of a heart-attack, his...1971, William Cooper, You want the right frame of reference, page 22
Noun
nosy (plural nosies)
- A look at something to satisfy one's curiosity.
- I might wander down to the construction site for a nosy at what they're building.
- A nose.
- There was a little Rosy, / And she had a little nosy; / And she made a little posy, / All pink and white and green. / And she said, “Little nosy, / Will you smell my little posy? / For of all the flowers that growsy, / Such sweet ones ne’er were seen.” / So she took the little posy, / And she put...1890, Laura E[lizabeth] Richards, “Rosy Posy”, in In My Nursery, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, page 174
- It’s this time of year when you’re warm and cozy and white snowflakes fall on your little nosy.2004 December 19, Mandel Comanda, “[What the holidays mean to me] It’s for family and friends”, in Sunday Courier News, page 140, column 3
Verb
nosy (third-person singular simple present nosies, present participle nosying, simple past and past participle nosied)
nosy meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic
nosy in Urdu
- کھوجی, متجسس, رازجو, تاک جھانک کرنے والا
nosy in Malayalam
- inquisitive, prying, curious
- എവിടെയും മണത്തുചെല്ലുന്ന, അമിതമായ ജിജ്ഞാസയുള്ള, വേണ്ടാത്തിടത്ത് ഒളിഞ്ഞനോക്കുന്ന, വകതിരിവില്ലാതെ ചുഴിഞ്ഞു നോക്കുന്ന, ഒളിഞ്ഞുനോക്കി രസഹ്യം കണ്ടുപിടിക്കുന്ന, അമിതണ്ടുതുകിയായ
nosy in Kannada
- ಉದ್ದಮೂಗಿನ, ನಿಡುಮೂಗಿನ, ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ವಾಸನೆಯ, ಮೂಗುತೂರಿಸುವ, ಮೂಗುಹಾಕುವ, ತಲೆಹಾಕುವ
nosy in Arabic
- prying, inquisitive or curious in other’s affairs; tending to snoop or meddle
- فُضُولِيّ fuḍūliyy
More languagesFewer languages
- nosy in Persian
- فضول fozul
- nosy in Vietnamese
- lắm chuyện, nhiều chuyện, đa sự, đa đoan
Examples of nosy in a sentence
- “Are you asking because you also want to go on a GLP-1, or are you asking because you’re nosy and need to know what’s going on in everybody else’s life?”2026 January 29, Angela Haupt, “Can I Ask Someone if They’re on Ozempic?”, in TIME, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2026:
- Nosy in his looks by the large hooked proboscis, which dominated his face, as well as by character, Ebenezer wanted, perhaps even needed, to know everyone's business.2005, R. G. Crouch, The Coat: The Origin and Times of Doggett's Famous Wager, page 99:
Synonyms of nosy
Forms of nosy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | nosier |
| comparative | more nosy |
| superlative | nosiest |
| superlative | most nosy |
| alternative form | nosey |
| Noun | |
| plural | nosies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nosies |
| present participle | nosying |
| past participle | nosied |
| past | nosied |
Origin of nosy
From nose + -y (adjectival suffix), or from nose + -y (diminutive suffix).
Words formed from nosy
Phrases with nosy
Questions about nosy
- What does nosy mean?
- Nosy means prying, inquisitive or curious in other’s affairs; tending to snoop or meddle.
- What is nosy in Urdu?
- Nosy in Urdu is کھوجی, متجسس, رازجو. See Nosy meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use nosy in a sentence?
- “Are you asking because you also want to go on a GLP-1, or are you asking because you’re nosy and need to know what’s going on in everybody else’s life?”
- What part of speech is nosy?
- Nosy can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce nosy?
- Nosy is pronounced /ˈnəʊziː/ (UK).
Words near nosy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nosy (page history and authors); nosy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nosy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); nosy (Kannada 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: en-us-nosy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nosy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nosy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.