nil

Clipping of English Nila.

nil

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Nila.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Nila terms

Borrowed from Latin nīl, a contraction of nihil, nihilum (“nothing”). See nihilism, nihility.

• IPA^(key): /nɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

nil (usually uncountable, plural nils)

1. Nothing; zero.
   • 1928 December 15, Frank J. Hirschboeck, “Treatment of Functional Heart Disease”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association‎^[1], volume 91, number 24, →DOI, page 1855:

     Sedatives, contrary to popular lay and medical opinion, are invaluable in those who are not aided by the simpler means. Bromides, barbital and its innumerable offspring may be used with success, their administration being supplemented with a word of warning as to the evasion of any advice from the community grandmothers contrary to its use. The danger of forming a habit is to my mind nil, except in the few instances in which patients have felt that if a little is good more is better. The necessity for not advising the patient of the nature of the remedy, except that it is not a “dope,” is obvious. An alternation of remedies is advisable in long standing cases, and its practice never reveals any tendency to habit formation.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.19:

     As to Aristotle's influence on him, we are left free to conjecture whatever seems to us most plausible. For my part, I should suppose it nil.

2. (sports) A score of zero

   The football match ended in a nil-nil draw.

nil

1. No, not any.
   • 1982, Gavin Lyall, Conduct of Major Maxim, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:

     But after two or three hours and nil results, you have to accept that the trail is cold and you can't justify that level of manpower.

• nihilism

• eau de nil
• null
• nil desperandum

• Lin, lin., Lin., -lin, lin, NLI

• nl, nĺ

• IPA^(key): [nɨ̆ĺ], [nĺ], [˩˧nɨ̆l]

nil

1. liquid; water

   Na nil ne dugudige. ― I swallowed water.

• Gordon Bunn, Golin Grammar (1974)

• IPA^(key): /nil/

nil (indefinite)

1. nothing

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈniːɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈnil]

nīl (indeclinable)

1. syncopic form of nihil (“nothing”)

   ‘Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma. Quam ergo mercedem accipies?’ ‘Nil nisi te, Domine.’

   ‘You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you like?’ ‘Nothing but you, Lord.’

Indeclinable pronoun (used only in the nominative and accusative), singular only.

• “nil”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nil”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from Hungarian nyíl.

nil n (uncountable)

1. (regional) sling

   Synonym: praștie

• nil in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

From English needle.

nil

1. needle
2. thorn
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 3:18:

     Ol rop i gat nil na ol gras nogut bai i kamap na karamapim gaden bilong yu.

     →New International Version translation