different between nought vs nothing

English

Alternative forms

• naught, nowt

Etymology

From Middle English nought, noght, no?t, from Old English n?wiht, n?wiht (nay +? a +? wight), which in turn comes from ne-?-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not a thing". Eventually this was reduced into nought, nawt and then not. Doublet of naught.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??t/
• Rhymes: -??t

Noun

nought (plural noughts)

1. Nothing; something which does not exist.
2. A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
3. (Britain) Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.

4. (Britain) The figure or character representing, or having the shape of, zero.

Derived terms

• bring to nought
• come to nought
• dreadnought
• noughties
• noughty
• set at nought

Translations

Adjective

nought

1. (obsolete) Good for nothing; worthless.
   • 1611, Authorized King James translation of Proverbs 20:14:

     It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

2. Wicked, immoral.

Verb

nought (third-person singular simple present noughts, present participle noughting, simple past and past participle noughted)

1. To abase, to set at nought.
   • 1393, Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, translated by Grace Warrack, 1901

     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 shall be noughted following our Master, Jesus, till we be full purged, that is to say, till we be fully noughted of our deadly flesh and of all our inward affections which are not very good;)

   • 1983, Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, page 25

     The nought which is you has devoured the style and been sustained for a while as a non-you until the style is emptied out by the noughting self.

   • 2001, William Desmond, Ethics and the Between, page 507

     Your usefulness is zero, your worth zero, and as zero you deserve to be treated as nothing, and in the extreme, noughted.

Adverb

nought

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

Pronoun

nought

1. Nothing; zero.

See also

• naught
• ought

References

• nought in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Notes:

Anagrams

• hognut, hotgun, hutong

Middle English

Alternative forms

• naught, nawght, na?t, nau?t, naw?t, noght, noughte, noughtt, nowght, no?t, nou?t, nou?te, now?t, nou?th, nou?the, nouht, nowhte, noust, nofte, nogt, nogthe, nowt, nout, nouth, noth
• (early) noht, naht, nohht, nawiht, naut

Etymology

From Old English n?wiht, n?wiht; equivalent to ne +? ought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?u?xt/, /nau?xt/, /n?xt/, /naxt/

Pronoun

nought

1. nothing, none

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt
• Scots: nout
• Yola: noucht

References

• “nought, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Adverb

nought

1. not (negates the accompanying verb)

2. not (to no degree, extent, or way)

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt

References

• “nought, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Adjective

nought

1. iniquitous, wicked
2. valueless, worthless
3. ineffectual, depleted
4. powerless, useless
5. null and void, invalid
6. (rare) unfitting, improper

Descendants

• English: nought, naught
• Scots: nocht

References

• “nought, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

nought (uncountable)

1. nothing, nought
2. nothingness, void
3. (rare) evil, iniquity
4. (rare) That which is worthless
5. (rare) zero (number)

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt
• Scots: nocht

References

• “nought, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “nought, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Conjunction

nought

1. and not

References

• “nought, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Alternative forms

• (nonstandard) nuffin, nuffink, nuttin', nuthin, nuthin', nuthing, nothin'

Etymology

From Middle English nothyng, noon thing, non thing, na þing, nan thing, nan þing, from Old English n?þing, n?n þing (“nothing”, literally “not any thing”), equivalent to no +? thing. Compare Old English n?wiht (“nothing”, literally “no thing”), Swedish ingenting (“nothing”, literally “not any thing, no thing”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: n?th'?ng, IPA^(key): /?n????/
• Rhymes: -????
• Hyphenation: noth?ing
• Rhymes: -??

Pronoun

nothing (indefinite pronoun)

1. Not any thing; no thing.
2. An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum.

Synonyms

• (not any thing):
  • (standard): not a thing, naught
  • (slang): jack, nada, zip, zippo, zilch, squat, nix
  • (vulgar slang): bugger all, jack shit, sod all (British), fuck all, dick
  • (Northern English dialect): nowt

See Thesaurus:nothing

• (something trifling): nothing of any consequence, nothing consequential, nothing important, nothing significant, something inconsequential, something insignificant, something of no consequence, something trifling, something unimportant

Antonyms

• anything
• everything
• something

Translations

Noun

nothing (countable and uncountable, plural nothings)

1. Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance.

   - What happened to your face?
   - It's nothing.

   • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

     Sermons are not like curious inquiries after new nothings, but pursuances of old truths.
2. A trivial remark (especially in the term sweet nothings).
3. A nobody (insignificant person).

   You're nothing to me now!

Translations

Adverb

nothing (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Not at all; in no way.

Derived terms

Related terms

Coordinate terms

• nobody, no one
• nowhere

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “nothing”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN