nutshell

B2 Topic:Plants & Agriculture

US /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/ See IPA manual

Freq #20640

Meanings

1

noun
The hard outer covering around the seed of a nut.

He cracked the nutshell and ate the kernel inside.
2

verb
To explain something briefly, giving only the main points.

Let me nutshell the plan for you in a few words.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms nutshells

Appears in

Idioms (1)

See all

in a nutshell
expressed in a very brief and simple way

Etymology

From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”).

notschelle Middle English hnutsċiell Old English *hnutskallju Proto-West Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Plants & Agriculture

External links

# nutshell

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/
**Frequency rank:** 20640

## Meanings
1. The hard outer covering around the seed of a nut.
2. To explain something briefly, giving only the main points.

## Examples
- He cracked the nutshell and ate the kernel inside.
- Let me nutshell the plan for you in a few words.

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: notschelle
- Root: hnutsċiell
- Root: *hnutskallju

## Etymology
From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”).

## AI Etymology
Nutshell comes from Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”). Modern senses include the hard outer covering around the seed of a nut and to explain something briefly, giving only the main points.

## Topics
- Plants & Agriculture

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