naught
Americanadjective
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lost; ruined.
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Archaic. worthless; useless.
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Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.
adverb
idioms
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come to naught, to come to nothing; be without result or fruition; fail.
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set at naught, to regard or treat as of no importance; disdain.
He entered a milieu that set his ideals at naught.
noun
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archaic nothing or nothingness; ruin or failure
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a variant spelling (esp US) of nought
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to have disregard or scorn for; disdain
adverb
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of naught
before 900; Middle English; Old English nauht, nāwiht ( nā no 1 + wiht thing). See nought, wight 1, whit
Explanation
When things come to naught, they've come to nothing. If you feel bad about ending up with nothing, you can also say "It was all for naught!" Have you ever put a lot of work into something and all you ended up with was nada, nil, nothing, zero, zilch, and zip? Then your efforts came to naught. Naught is a word for nothing that is used in specific ways, usually when a project or effort comes to naught.
Vocabulary lists containing naught
100 SAT Words Beginning with "N"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1
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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.
See Examples For:
No one knows, but all the flailing, hammering, digging and burrowing are for naught.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
I learned from a successful mentor that you can get a lot of things right, but if you don’t get the major trend right, it’s for naught.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
Some in the Iranian capital feared the ceasefire will come to naught, but others declared victory and most breathed a sigh of relief after weeks of bombardment.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
To add fuel to the barbecue, the deal with Argentina may be all for naught.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
There is naught that an old Ent can do to hold back that storm: he must weather it or crack.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
But she said, if Morris Chestnut was the ideal black boyfriend of the ’90s and the naughts, aka urbane, upwardly mobile, suave, smooth, Lakeith is this generation’s black rom-com boyfriend, emotionally intelligent, creative, quirky, funny.
From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2019
Until the naughts, when I simply quit going.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2016
No. Right or wrong, the referee’s decision at the double naughts must stand.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2015
Rather, we’re in the midst of a two-decade period without universally agreed-upon names: the naughts, aughts, zeros, oh-ohs, or 2000s; tens, tweens and teens.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2013
Look, Peter, how she put faces in the naughts and turned the sevens into little sail- boats!
From Sisters by Kathleen Thompson Norris
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.
