n
neutron.
Jump To:
n
1 American
'n
2
American
[uhn]
/ ən /
Or
'n'
conjunction
Informal.
N
3
American
[en]
/ ɛn /
Or
n
noun
N's,
plural
Ns,
plural
n's,
plural
ns
plural
-
the 14th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
-
any spoken sound represented by the letter N or n, as in now, dinner, son, etc.
-
something having the shape of an N .
-
a written or printed representation of the letter N or n.
-
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter N or n.
N
4
American
N
5
American
Symbol.
-
the 14th in order or in a series.
-
(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 90.
-
Chemistry.
-
Biochemistry. asparagine.
-
Mathematics. an indefinite, constant whole number, especially the degree of a quantic or an equation, or the order of a curve.
-
Chess. knight.
-
Printing. en.
-
Physics. neutron number.
n-
6
American
Chemistry.
-n
7
American
n.
8
American
abbreviation
n.
9
American
abbreviation
-
name.
-
nephew.
-
Commerce. net.
-
neuter.
-
new.
-
nominative.
-
noon.
-
Chemistry. normal (strength solution).
-
north.
-
northern.
-
Finance. note.
-
noun.
-
number.
N.
10
American
abbreviation
-
Nationalist.
-
Navy.
-
New.
-
Noon.
-
Chemistry. normal (strength solution).
-
Norse.
-
north.
-
northern.
-
Finance. note.
-
November.
N
1
British
symbol
-
Also: kt. chess knight
-
neper
-
neutral
-
newton(s)
-
chem nitrogen
-
North
-
Avogadro's number
-
noun
abbreviation
n.
2
British
abbreviation
-
natus
-
neuter
-
new
-
nominative
-
noun
n
3
British
symbol
-
neutron
-
optics index of refraction
-
nano-
n
4
British
/ ɛn /
noun
-
the 14th letter and 11th consonant of the modern English alphabet
-
a speech sound represented by this letter, usually an alveolar nasal, as in nail
n
5
British
/ ɛn /
determiner
n-
6
British
prefix
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of 'n2
A phonetic spelling representing the pronunciation of the word in continuous rapid speech
Origin of n.8
From the Latin word nātus
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.
See Examples For:
The simplest version of the unit distance problem goes something like this: If you put n dots on a sheet of paper, how many pairs of dots can be exactly one unit apart?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
These racial categories are still used n South Africa today.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
Saying he was in "good spirits", he joked: "I am determined not to die before Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Ant' n 'Dec. That should keep me going for a while."
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
He predicts that Microsoft “will be a n early” adopter of Arista’s XPO and linear pluggable optics, or LPO, strategy deployments and that others could follow suit.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026
“We’ll be here till dark, maybe a little after. You come back if n you want a ride.”
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Sometimes seasoned simply with salt and pepper, sometimes coated in Shake ’n Bake, that sandy, paprika-tinged breadcrumb mix that crisped into something approximating a crust.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2026
Wasserman found a surrogate father in his grandfather Lew, who would leave his company’s office early to make Little League games and take him to Nate ’n Al’s diner on weekends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
Even Schaffer’s Disney cartoon “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” was good and here, he’s teamed up again with its writers, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2025
Salmond described his parents as working class nationalists with a small ‘n’.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
Wondering if, for no good reason I started thinking about Sears and Roebuck or Shake ’n Bake, would it be because some Illinoian had thought it two days ago.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
The second defendant, N, was found by experts to have an IQ in the bottom 1% compared with his contemporaries.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
The two older boys, J and N, received three-year YROs with 180 days of intensive supervision.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
The Drake tour experience led to an eventual epiphany in the form of another of Yeat and BNYX’s biggest songs to date, 2025’s “COMË N GO.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
The tour is set to continue with Big Boi as an opener and A-Trak, Me N Ü and Dot Da Genius slated to open at certain shows.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
I pointed at the N and said “New,” and the Y and said “York.”
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
The junctions between n- and p-type silicon act like valves, stopping current flowing in the wrong direction.
From Economist ● Aug. 17, 2011
They seem to be choo, joo, ja, ya, n-, yun, u-, ku, pu, bu, nu, etc.
From Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia by Thomas, Northcote Whitridge
I cried, "how n-" nice, I was going to say, but stopped just in time.
From Stepping Heavenward by Prentiss, E. (Elizabeth)
Now you run sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -t xiwi -u -n xenial, replacing xenial with your chosen chroot name if you have something custom.
From The Verge ● Nov. 16, 2017
Every service member who dies in one of America’s wars gives up his life in following the orders of the commander -n chief.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2017
Sev-en = the Latin sept-em, where the -m is equivalent to the -n.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Nouns ending in -a, -e, -i, -y, -o, -l, -n, -t, -ar, -ur, -ŭs are Neuter.
From New Latin Grammar by Bennett, Charles E. (Charles Edwin)
Infinitives end commonly in -en or -e, as riden, 26, y-lere; also in -n, as don, 117, leyn, 718; and even in -o, as flo, 612, slo, 1364.
From The Lay of Havelok the Dane by Unknown
“Just to make the point, most phones won’t let you put an umlaut over an n. Look: n. It’s impossible. Spın̈al Tap will have to remain for the pre-iPhone age.”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2022
And certainly infamy, n. “the state of being well known for some bad quality or deed,” feels accurate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2021
“Val·e·dic·to·rian: n. in schools and colleges, the student, usually the one highest in scholastic rank in the graduating class, who delivers the valedictory,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 15, 2015
Underfunding schools, low tax base, depressed n. hoods, and few good job prospects--all work together to produce a downward spiral.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2014
Red Flags, n.: possibly therapists’ favorite term in the world.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
"Today I sit here, tomorrow I stand there," said engineering graduate Rani N., 21, on a break from filming herself, once again, folding a towel.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
To drive that point home, he posted an image of several prominent libertarians, including economists Murray N. Rothbard and Milton Friedman and former congressman Justin Amash, in suits and ties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
More specifically, I headed for 5558 N. Figueroa St., which was on the path of Route 66 for several years in the 1930s and which is the home of Chicken Boy.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
Late last month, the company’s first-quarter results and guidance came in ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, leading Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton to say the company “has reached an inflection point.”
From MarketWatch ● May 9, 2026
Chacko took the shortcut through the tilting rubber trees so that he would have to walk only a very short stretch down the main road to Comrade K. N. M. Pillai’s house.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
All that phosphate reduced N’s ability to bind RNA.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2024
N’s journey began in Bangladesh, where a series of boats ferried her and other Rohingya across the Bay of Bengal.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
A doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she remembered Ms Letby being "agitated" when a team of specialists from Alder Hey Hospital arrived to help with Child N's treatment.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2023
The Find N’s hinge lets the phone stay unfolded between 50 and 120 degrees.
From The Verge ● Dec. 15, 2021
Tanisha’s up there with all the B’s, and here I am standing in my holey tube socks, sandwiched between all the M’s and N’s, with Beatriz tailing right behind me.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
Straighten those arches on Ms and Ns, and don’t forget the little left arm on capital “I.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
It’s actually three Ns: nitpicker, narcissist or neurodivergent.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2021
To construct pseudomolecules, the gaps between the neighbouring super-scaffolds were filled with 1,000 Ns.
From Nature ● Nov. 14, 2017
Although the ash genome assembly covers about 99% of the expected genome size based on flow cytometry, about 17% is composed of Ns.
From Nature ● Dec. 25, 2016
The meteorologist from Cincinnati spins the wheel and goes bankrupt, but then the schoolteacher from Kansas manages to find three Ns in the puzzle.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
At first, I went by Ann Jilliann with two n’s.
From Fox News ● Aug. 14, 2021
In 1992 Roger Heath-Brown of the University of Oxford proposed a stronger conjecture stating that there are infinitely many ways to express all possible n’s as the sum of three cubes.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2020
Subtract 12n from each side to get the n’s to one side.
From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020
“In one of my first tweets, I managed to spell ‘finish’ wrong — with two n’s, like ‘Finnish,’ ” said Erik Isberg, an 18-year-old high school student who was @Sweden for the week ending Sunday.
From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2012
No mistaking her u's for n’s or her is for e's.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
As a general rule, when the representative elements form cations, they do so by the loss of the ns or np electrons that were added last in the Aufbau process.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Paul,nnto @ @ Heh-One of my "ns" is for "nitpicking". jmac Romney's history.
From Time ● Mar. 15, 2013
In one of the letters dictated to him by his captors, he intentionally misspelled the two words prisonners and questionned, intending the extra ns to indicate that he was in Montreal North.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Gareth came to me just now, to warn ns that Arthur had gone away on purpose to set a trap, and that Agravaine or Mordred was going to catch us out.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
They told ns that their rain only came here and there in fine misty sprays, and a basketful of corn was regarded as a large crop.
From A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Nichols, Henry Hobart
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.
