Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use nifty in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, noun

Nifty means good, smart; useful or beneficial, often in an impressively clever way. Example: “You look nifty in that jacket.”

Examples of nifty by meaning

adjectiveGood, smart; useful or beneficial, often in an impressively clever way.

  • a nifty trick for reducing your household energy bill

adjectiveStylish.

  • You look nifty in that jacket.
  • The niftiest, snappiest slacks you ever saw!1933, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 56

nounA possibly risqué comic story or anecdote.

  • New subscribers are the life of our party (any advertiser will tell you that) just as the regular reader of CLIPPINGS becomes the life of any party (and why not with such a supply of “nifties” and bon mots).1929, Air Wonder Stories
  • Because some of the stories that the Sultana told are nifties, the plays are sometimes edited.1950 April 8, Billboard, page 146
  • “Miss Fletcher knows exactly what she is doing, goes about her business with gratifying swiftness and comes up with a finish worthy of one of Roald Dahl's little nifties,” wrote Douglas Watt.2011, Amnon Kabatchnik, Blood on the Stage, 1950-1975, page 580

More sentences with nifty

  • I thought he'd be pleased at my nifty escapery but he wasn't.2014, Jeremy Strong, Kidnapped! The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog's Sizzling Summer, Penguin Random House Children's UK. From the entry escapery
  • Kugler, who made a nifty pick-up, but threw wild at first, giving the batter a life.1915 June 24, “Philadelphians on the Diamond”, in The New York Lumber Trade Journal, volume 59, page 42. From the entry life
  • "Oh, what a nifty idea," Collins said dryly.2003, Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, page 579. From the entry medieval
  • Meanwhile the research center is nifty as ever.1974, Stewart Brand, II Cybernetic Frontiers, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 88. From the entry personal computer
  • Rivera retired the next three batters in order, with third baseman Alex Rodriguez contributing a nifty barehand pickup and throw on Julio Lugo’s roller.2007 April 29, Pat Borzi, “Normalcy Returns: Rivera Gets First Save”, in The New York Times. From the entry contribute
  • The screen serves as a de facto mirror — a nifty trick for a show about the vortexlike pull and mind-altering possibilities of television.2007 February 11, Dennis Lim, “One Couch Potato, Gently Roasted”, in New York Times. From the entry vortexlike
  • We were the self-controlled, cautious, nifty merchants, decorous fiddlers of accounts, hoarders of wealth, excellent bribers, family and community creatures governed by manners.2005, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The drama of my life (in The Independent online…. From the entry fiddler
  • Besides, if you worked up to be a cadet officer, you got to wear a Sam Browne belt, from which depended a nifty saber.1982, Paul Fussell, My War. From the entry depend
  • The mock heraldic strains of the Game of Thrones theme, borrowed straight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail, accompany a nifty dragon’s eye view of a beautifully wrought clockwork Thronesiverse.2017 November 25, Patrick Freyne, “The TV theme songs that make you drool with pleasure”, in The Irish Times. From the entry Thronesiverse
  • You see, Pictionary comes complete with a nifty art package, needing only the addition of your fingers and a keyboard to originate the most splendiferous of graphic designs.1990 January, "Pictionary" (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 48, page 38. From the entry dimmock

Meaning of nifty

  1. adjective Good, smart; useful or beneficial, often in an impressively clever way.
  2. adjective Stylish.
  3. noun A possibly risqué comic story or anecdote.

Full definition of nifty

Questions about nifty in a sentence

How do you use nifty in a sentence?
Nifty is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “You look nifty in that jacket.”
What is a short sentence with nifty?
“You look nifty in that jacket.”
What does nifty mean?
Nifty means good, smart; useful or beneficial, often in an impressively clever way.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nifty (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use nifty in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/nifty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.