nought

[nawt]

noun

1. naught.

nought

/ nɔːt /

noun

1. the digit 0; zero: used esp in counting or numbering

noun

1. a variant spelling of naught

Word History and Origins

Origin of nought¹

before 900; Middle English; Old English nōht, contraction of nōwiht, equivalent to ne not + ōwiht aught ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of nought¹

Old English nōwiht, from ne not, no + ōwiht something; see _whit

Example Sentences

If they had caught Ravindra Jadeja on nought in Manchester, or any of the six they dropped in India's second innings here, it might have been different.

From BBC

Crawley was on nought for 13 balls, finally taking a single off his 14th.

From BBC

He got me out next ball for nought.

From BBC

Reprieved as England reached 209-3 on Saturday, Brook began Sunday by stretching his time on nought to 15 balls.

From BBC

While waiting for the appointment, Mr Cannon said the pain started and increased "to the stage where, on a scale from nought to 10, I was having spasms at level eight".

From BBC

Related Words

• nonentity 

When To Use

What does nought mean?

Nought means nothing or none, as in All of my efforts at winning the game were for nought because I lost badly.Nought also refers to zero. For example, if your math class is in Room One-Nought-Seven, it is in Room 107. The informal term noughties for the decade of 2000–2009 comes from this sense.Nought is an alternate spelling of naught, which has the exact same meaning.Example: I had nought to do with breaking the lamp, but my mother still thought I was involved.