nought

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nought

  • /nɔːt/ UK
  • /noːt/ Australia, British, New Zealand, Southern, Standard
  • /nʊt/ Multicultural London English
  • /nɔt/ US
  • /nɑt/ Atlantic Canada, US, cot caught merger
  • /nɒt/ Canada, Eastern New England
  • /nɔt/ Scotland

Sounds like naught, not, knot (both cot–caught merger) · Rhymes with -ɔːt

Where it comes from

From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not.

noun noughts · naught · nowt

  1. A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
  2. Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game. 0.335 cm is nought/zero point three three five of a centimeter.
  3. The figure or character representing, or having the shape of, zero.

adjective naught · nowt

  1. obsolete Good for nothing; worthless. It is nought, it is nought (saith the buyer:) but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
  2. Wicked, immoral.

verb noughts · noughting · noughted · naught · nowt

  1. To abase, to set at nought. In this naked word sin, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that is not good, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; (for we be all partly noughted, and we shal

adverb naught · nowt

  1. To no extent; in no way; not at all.
  2. Not.

pronoun naught · nowt

  1. Nothing; zero.

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