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

The rally in gold prices didn’t come out of nowhere.

Read more on Barron's

Kate Wareing has dedicated her career to helping people who find themselves in a crisis because they have nowhere to live.

Read more on BBC

Opening statements and Mead’s testimony underscored the reasons a recent one-day settlement conference between the two sides went nowhere,

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The contrast between Spain's approach and that of others in the West is not just in spending but in tone and mindset – and nowhere more so than in dealing with migration.

Read more on BBC

Greer said China’s expansion of export controls on rare earths critical for autos, technology, and defense came out of nowhere and was “completely disproportionate” to measures the U.S. has taken on semiconductors.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

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