nowhere

[noh-hwair, -wair]

adverb

1. in or at no place; not anywhere.

   The missing pen was nowhere to be found.

2. to no place.

   We went nowhere last weekend.

noun

1. the state of nonexistence or seeming nonexistence.

   A gang of thieves appeared from nowhere.

2. anonymity or obscurity.

   She came from nowhere to win the championship.

3. an unknown, remote, or nonexistent place or region.

adjective

Informal.

1. being or leading nowhere; pointless; futile.

   to be stuck in a nowhere job.

2. worthless or useless.

   That's a nowhere idea if I ever heard one.

nowhere

/ ˈnəʊˌwɛə /

adverb

1. in, at, or to no place; not anywhere

2. informal,  to fail completely to make any progress

3. far from; not nearly

noun

1. a nonexistent or insignificant place

2. a completely isolated, featureless, or insignificant place

Spelling Note

See anyplace.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nowhere¹

before 1000; Middle English (adv.); Old English nāhwǣr, nōhwǣr. See no ¹, where

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. miles from nowhere, in a remote, isolated, or inaccessible area.

2. nowhere near, not nearly.

   There's nowhere near enough food to go around.

More idioms and phrases containing nowhere

• get nowhere
• in the middle (of nowhere)
• out of nowhere

Example Sentences

"We have nowhere to sleep. There's no electricity. We have nothing to eat."

Read more on Barron's

“It was OK, but it was incongruous, getting us nowhere, and in the end we had no money, no nothing.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

California has the highest home prices in the nation, and incomes are nowhere near sufficient for a typical family to purchase a house or condo.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A road game against an opponent with plenty of its own urgency should tell the Bruins whether they’re on the road to redemption or merely picking up speed on a route to nowhere.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"The scientific community says AI technology is amazing," she adds, "but it's nowhere near human intelligence."

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• dull 
• humdrum 
• lifeless 
• monotonous 
• mundane 
• stale 
• stodgy 
• stuffy 
• stupid 
• tame 
• tedious 
• tiresome 
• tiring www.thesaurus.com
• trite 
• uninteresting