aught

¹

Or ought

[awt]

noun

1. anything whatever; any part.

   for aught I know.

adverb

1. Archaic.,  in any degree; at all; in any respect.

aught

²

Or ought

[awt]

noun

1. a cipher (0); zero.

2. aughts, the first decade of any century, especially the years 1900 through 1909 or 2000 through 2009.

aught

³

[awkht]

verb (used with object)

Scot.

1. to own; possess.

2. to owe (someone or something); be obligated to.

adjective

Scot.

1. possessed of.

noun

1. Archaic.

   1. ownership; possession.

   2. property; a possession.

aught

⁴

[awkht]

adjective

Scot.

1. eight.

2. eighth.

aught

¹

/ ɔːt /

pronoun

1. anything at all; anything whatever (esp in the phrase for aught I know )

adverb

1. dialect,  in any least part; to any degree

aught

²

/ ɔːt /

noun

1. a less common word for nought

Word History and Origins

Origin of aught¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English aught, ought, Old English āht, āwiht, ōwiht, equivalent to ā, ō “ever” + wiht “thing”; wight ¹

Origin of aught²

First recorded in 1820–25; from a naught, taken as an aught ( auger ). See naught

Origin of aught³

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English æht; cognate with Old High German ēht, Gothic aihts; akin to owe, own

Origin of aught⁴

First recorded in 1100–50; Middle English aghte, aughte, variant of eighte; eight

Word History and Origins

Origin of aught¹

Old English āwiht, from ā ever, _ay ¹ + wiht thing; see _wight ¹

Example Sentences

Last year’s inescapable “Wicked” and its new follow-up finale, “Wicked: For Good,” present an entirely different, far more frustrating predicament than the one Warner Bros. faced in the late aughts.

Read more on Salon

In the aughts, Google Chrome’s rise on the back of smartphone adoption replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“If you think about what the aughts were culturally, there was reverence and fear about technology and how it would affect our interpersonal relationships. This is all very familiar.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The longtime collaborators revealed Monday that they have been dating for more than a decade, pretty much since they gained popularity in the late aughts.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

That compares with nearly $6 in the aughts, when the U.S. burned about a third less natural gas than it does now, according to the U.S.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal