Why is meta-nitrophenol less acidic than para-nitrophenol?
The acidity of nitrophenols (or any acid for that matter) is determined by the stability of the conjugate base. In the case of m-nitrophenol and p-nitrophenol, the relative stability can be determined by looking at the resonance structures.



You can see that p-nitrophenol has an additional resonance structure where the negative charge is delocalised onto the oxygens of the nitro group, which are highly electronegative and therefore stabilise the charge effectively. This stabilisation is not possible in the case of m-nitrophenol because there is no opportunity via resonance for delocalisation onto the nitro group.