naysayer
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of naysayer
Explanation
A naysayer is a person who always says "No." Naysayers are negative and cynical — they aren't much fun to be around. If you respond to every invitation with, "No thanks — I wouldn't have fun anyway," and answer questions about how your day was with a list of complaints, you're a naysayer. It's your negative, pessimistic attitude that makes you a naysayer. In the 1600s a nay-say was a "refusal," from the now less common use of nay to mean "no."
Vocabulary lists containing naysayer
Scrooge, Grinch, and Churl: Wonderful Words for Unpleasant People
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Curmudgeon, Cantankerous and Churlish: Grouchy Words
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Vocabulary from news articles about rescued teenage sailor
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With Disney’s stock hovering just above an 11-month low, one previous naysayer analyst turned bullish, saying it’s ‘historically cheap.’
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
To her critics, Breed closed with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt prizing the person who strives in spite of setbacks rather than the naysayer who carps from the sidelines.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 7, 2024
When he chooses to bulldoze over a naysayer on “OK,” it’s power chords and rock drums behind his war-cry that he’s “gonna do it anyway.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2023
The feedback for the challenge has been mostly positive, Mr. Prince said, aside from a naysayer who popped into a Facebook discussion group for social media professors.
From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2023
They said that they had identified him, and that he was a hacker and a naysayer of the worst kind.
From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
