nudge
/nʌd͡ʒ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/nɐd͡ʒ/
nudge noun: a gentle push. Also the alternative form of nudzh.
Noun
nudge (plural nudges)
- A gentle push.
- give someone a nudge
- A feature of instant messaging software used to get the attention of another user, as by shaking the conversation window or playing a sound.
- The rotation by one step of a fruit machine reel of the player's choice.
- Since the machine was showing two lemons and a cherry, I decided to try a nudge.
- The use of positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence.
- All this experimentation is yielding insights into which nudges give the biggest shove. One question is whether nudges can be designed to harness existing social norms. In Copenhagen Pelle Guldborg Hansen, founder of the Danish Nudging Network, a non-profit organisation, tested two potential...2012 March 24, “Nudge nudge, think think”, in The Economist
- Manipulating behavior is old hat in the private sector, where advertisers and companies have been nudging consumers for decades. Just think of strategically placed chocolate bars at the checkout counter. But in public policy, nudge proponents study human behavior to try to figure out why people...2013 December 7, Kathrin Bennhold, “Britain’s Ministry of Nudges”, in New York Times
Verb
nudge (third-person singular simple present nudges, present participle nudging, simple past and past participle nudged)
- To push against gently, especially in order to gain attention or give a signal.
- Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that “nudges” our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they...2012 January, Steven Sloman, “The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2012, page 74
- Synonyms:
- jog
- To near or come close to something.
- This year's profits are nudging the 10 million mark.
- To move slightly.
- But a serious public health and economic crisis, and the responses to it from commonwealth and state governments, seems to have nudged some “protest” voters back into the major party fold.2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian
Also used as
nudge is also the alternative form of nudzh.
nudge meaning in Telugu, Punjabi and Odia
nudge in Telugu
- నడ్జ్
nudge in Punjabi
- ਨੱਜ
nudge in Odia
- ନଜ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ
Examples of nudge in a sentence
- All this experimentation is yielding insights into which nudges give the biggest shove.2012 March 24, “Nudge nudge, think think”, in The Economist:
- But in public policy, nudge proponents study human behavior to try to figure out why people sometimes make choices that they themselves would consider poor.2013 December 7, Kathrin Bennhold, “Britain’s Ministry of Nudges”, in New York Times:
Synonyms of nudge
Antonyms
Forms of nudge
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nudges |
| alternative form | nug |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nudges |
| present participle | nudging |
| past participle | nudged |
| past | nudged |
Origin of nudge
Circa 17th century, perhaps of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian nugge, nyggje (“to push, rub, shove”), Icelandic nugga (“to rub, massage”), from the root of Proto-Germanic *hnōjaną (“to smooth, join together”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneh₂- (compare Ancient Greek κνάω (knáō, “to scratch, scrape”), source of English acnestis). Compare also Scots nodge (“to push, poke, nudge”), knidge (“to push, squeeze”), gnidge (“to rub, press, squeeze, bruise”), and knudge (“to squeeze, press down with the knuckles”), Saterland Frisian Nukke, Nuk (“a sudden push”), Middle Low German nucke, nücke, gnücke (“a sudden push, shock, impetus”). Compare also dialectal nuch (“to tremble”), Middle English nuchen (“to tremble”).
Words formed from nudge
Words that rhyme with nudge
8 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about nudge
- What does nudge mean?
- Nudge means a gentle push.
- What is nudge in Telugu?
- Nudge in Telugu is నడ్జ్. See Nudge meaning in Telugu.
- How do you use nudge in a sentence?
- All this experimentation is yielding insights into which nudges give the biggest shove.
- What part of speech is nudge?
- Nudge can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce nudge?
- Nudge is pronounced /nʌd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nudge?
- The plural of nudge is nudges.
Words near nudge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nudge (page history and authors); nudge (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nudge (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nudge (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-nudge.wav.
Cite this entry: “nudge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nudge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.