different between oughts vs noughties

English

Alternative forms

• 'oughts
• aughts

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??ts/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??ts/

Noun

oughts

1. plural of ought
2. The first decade of a century, such as the 1900s, 2000 to 2009, etc, where the digit in the tens place is zero.
   • 1919, Harry Hamilton Johnston, The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel, Macmillan, page 172,

     He and his clever staff of minor blackguards exploited to the full every weakness and caries in the London Society of the 'eighties, 'nineties, and 'oughts.

   • 2000, John Maxtone-Graham, Liners to the Sun, Sheridan House, Inc., ?ISBN, page xii,

     And for the oughts—by which I suppose we must identify our new millennium's first decade—projected tonnage figures keep up the mind-boggling pace.

   • 2006, Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Regnery Publishing, ?ISBN, page 13,

     The "experts" of the Western world are slower to turn around than an ocean liner, and in Europe they were still yakking about the "population explosion" even as their 1970s schoolhouses, built in anticipation of traditional Catholic birth rates, were emptying through the nineties and oughts.

Synonyms

• noughties
• 2000s

See also

• nineties
• teens, tens

Anagrams

• Stough, sought, toughs

English

Alternative forms

• Noughties
• naughties
• Naughties

Etymology

nought (“zero”) +? -ies (“plural of -y”), in imitation of the names of other decades (twenties, thirties, etc)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n??tiz/

Noun

noughties pl (plural only)

1. The first decade of a century: from 1900 to 1909, 2000 to 2009, etc.

Synonyms

• the 2000s
• the 1900s (rare)
• the aughts, oughts
• the zeroes, Zeroes (rare)
• the '00s

Usage notes

• A nonce word, sometimes avoided because it is a homonym with naughties; it is even sometimes spelled "Naughties". Terms such as at the turn of the century or in the early years of the century are more common. In context, as during that decade or in the immediately following years, or in a list of decades, the 1900s/nineteen-hundreds and 2000s is commonly used, but this becomes ambiguous in a broader context, as the 1900s more commonly means the entire century, and the 2000s may mean the entire millennium. The first decade of the twentieth century is frequently referred to as the Edwardian era in the UK, as it coincides very closely with the reign of King Edward VII.
• Like twenties, etc, the word is sometimes capitalised.

Translations

See also

Anagrams

• Shogunite