naught
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne + aught.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation): enPR: nôt, IPA(key): /nɔːt/
- (US): enPR: nôt, IPA(key): /nɔt/
- (cot–caught merger): enPR: nät, IPA(key): /nɑt/
Audio (US) (file) - Homophone: not (in accents with the cot-caught merger), knot (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
- Rhymes: -ɔːt
Pronoun
naught
- Nothing.
- Naught can come of this, you mark my words.
- 2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 56:
- My day starts where yesterday's had finished - at St Pancras, only this time on Thameslink and the subterranean station I first visited when it was naught but an empty box. Now it's a vital cross-London interchange.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
naught (countable and uncountable, plural naughts)
- (archaic) Nothingness.
- (chiefly US, old-fashioned) Alternative spelling of nought
Derived terms
Translations
References
- “naught”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Middle English
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