Nice

See also: Appendix:Variations of "nice"

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French Nice, from Latin Nīcaea, from Ancient Greek Νῑ́καια (Nī́kaia), from νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”) +‎ -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, “-ia”, suffix forming place names). It was named for a 4th-century-BCE victory of its colonizing Phocaean Greeks over local Ligurians, probably the Vediantii.

Doublet of Iznik and Nicaea.

Pronunciation

• enPR: nēs
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /niːs/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /nis/

    • Audio (California):

      (file)

  • (Australia) IPA^(key): /niːs/
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /niːs/
• Rhymes: -iːs
• Homophone: niece

Proper noun

Nice

2. A coastal city, the capital of Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeast France.

   Synonym: (history) Nicaea

   • 2025 August 20, Joseph Ataman, Pierre Bairin, Philippe Cordier, “French streamer dies live online during extreme challenge”, in CNN‎^[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 13 February 2026:

     The Nice prosecutor’s office told CNN that an investigation has been opened into his death and an autopsy ordered. So far, authorities have not announced any charges related to Pormanove’s death.

3. A surname. (pronounced /ni:s/ or /naɪs/)
4. A census-designated place in Lake County, California, United States.

Derived terms

• Nice model

Related terms

• Nicaea
• Nicaean

Translations

city in France

• Albanian: Nice f
• Arabic: نِيس f (nīs)
• Armenian: Նիցցա (Nicʻcʻa), Նիս (Nis)
• Azerbaijani: Nitsa
• Belarusian: Ні́ца f (Níca)
• Bengali: নিস (niś)
• Bulgarian: Ни́ца f (Níca)
• Catalan: Niça (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 尼斯 (zh) (Nísī)

• Corsican: Nizza f
• Czech: Nice (cs) f
• Danish: Nice (da)
• Dutch: Nice n
• Esperanto: Nico
• Estonian: Nice (et)
• Farefare: Nis, Nika
• Finnish: Nizza (fi)
• French: Nice (fr) f
• Galician: Niza
• Georgian: ნიცა (nica)
• German: Nizza (de) n
• Greek: Νίκαια (el) f (Níkaia)

  Ancient Greek: Νίκαια f (Níkaia)

  Pontic Greek: Νις (Nis)

• Hebrew: ניס f (nis)
• Hindi: नीस (hi) ? (nīs)
• Hungarian: Nizza (hu)
• Icelandic: Nice
• Indonesian: Nice (id)
• Italian: Nizza f
• Japanese: ニース (Nīsu)
• Kazakh: Ницца (Nıycca)
• Korean: 니스 (Niseu)
• Kyrgyz: Ницца (Nitstsa)
• Latin: Nīcaea f
• Latvian: Nica f
• Ligurian: Nissa
• Lithuanian: Nica f
• Macedonian: Ница f (Nica)
• Marathi: नीस (nīs)
• Mongolian: Ницца (Nicca)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Nice

• Occitan: Niça (oc) f, Nissa (oc) f
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: نیس (nis)

• Polish: Nicea (pl) f
• Portuguese: Nice (pt) f
• Romanian: Nisa (ro) f
• Russian: Ни́цца (ru) f (Nícca)
• Sardinian: Nitza f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Ница f

  Latin: Nica (sh) f

• Sicilian: Nizza f
• Slovak: Nice f
• Slovene: Nica f
• Spanish: Niza (es) f
• Swedish: Nice (sv)
• Tajik: Нитса (Nitsa)
• Thai: นิส (nís)
• Turkish: Nice (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: نیس (nis)

• Ukrainian: Ні́цца f (Nícca)
• Urdu: نیس (nīs)
• Yiddish: ניס (nis)

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Nice is the 9090^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 3595 individuals. Nice is most common among White (93.63%) individuals.

Anagrams

• Ince, Niec, cien, cine, cine-, icen

French

Etymology

From Latin Nīcaea, from Ancient Greek Νίκαια (Níkaia), from νίκη (níkē, “victory”). Doublet of Nicée.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nis/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is

Proper noun

Nice f

1. Nice (a coastal city, the capital of Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeast France)

   Synonym: (history) Nicée

Derived terms

• nicéité
• niçois
• Niçois, Niçoise

Related terms

• Nicée
• nicéen
• Nicéen, Nicéenne

Descendants

• → Arabic: نِيس (nīs)
• → Chinese: 尼斯 (Nísī)
• → English: Nice
• → Hindi: नीस (nīs)
• → Iranian Persian: نیس (nis)
• → Japanese: ニース (Nīsu)
• → Korean: 니스 (Niseu)
• → Ottoman Turkish: نیس (nis)
• → Thai: นิส (nís)

Anagrams

• ciné

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈni.si/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈni.sɨ/

• Rhymes: -isi
• Hyphenation: Ni‧ce

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin Nice, from Ancient Greek Νίκη (Níkē). Doublet of Nike.

Proper noun

Nice f

1. (Greek mythology) Nike (goddess of victory)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French Nice, from Latin Nīcaea, from Ancient Greek Νῑ́καια (Nī́kaia). Doublet of Niceia.

Proper noun

Nice ?

1. Nice (a coastal city, the capital of Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeast France)

Etymology 3

Proper noun

Nice f

1. a diminutive of the female given name Cleonice