Nanosintering behaviour of MgAl2O4 ultra-fine powder was investigated under high pressure. We found that the nanosintering mechanism under high pressure was quite different from that under ambient pressure. To shed light on the mechanism, the residual stress, grain size, and boundary situation were investigated using HRTEM and XRD, respectively. Our results show high pressure can restrain grain growth and initiate plastic deformation to eliminate pores and/or additional phases existing in triple junctions of the grains. However, the conventional sintering process is controlled by grain growth to avoid imperfections between grain boundaries when preparing transparent ceramics. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.