nobody
Americanpronoun
noun
-
nobodies
plural
pronoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of nobody
First recorded 1300–50; Middle English; see origin at no 2, body
Compare meaning
How does nobody compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use the word nobody to mean "no one," or for someone who's completely unimportant or insignificant. It's not nice to call someone a nobody; everyone wants to be a somebody. If nobody is at home, you can ring the doorbell for an hour and get no response, and if nobody in your family likes pizza, there's no reason to order it for dinner. Since nobody means "no person," it's come to also have the meaning "insignificant person." It's hard not to feel like a nobody when your sister becomes famous after starring in a popular movie.
Vocabulary lists containing nobody
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:
Before their conviction on 19 October, they had all pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted that nobody was forced to die.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
Creating “Rocky” was itself an underdog story about a nobody who not only went the distance, but won the championship—best picture of 1976 at the Oscars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
“That was sort of a defining battle between North and South, but nobody won it. It was just that the lines had been drawn, and those lines still stand today.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
About $12,000 went toward the wedding, and the rest went into the house, which has since eaten a new water heater and a roof repair nobody warned us about.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
“One bronze piece. You won’t regret it—and money’s hard for a fortune teller, these days, with everyone anxious and nobody clear why.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
For context, they didn't go from nobodies to champions in Pocognoli's one season at the helm.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
An addendum: “It is far easier to work with nobodies or people who are on their way up than established stars.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Over the decades, amateurs have beaten pros, nobodies have beaten somebodies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
A small group of nobodies on TikTok saying dumb shit is not a viral trend that necessitates mass hysteria in response.
From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2023
He thought of the burial mounds that dotted the Chinese countryside — the small mounds for nobodies, the big mounds for big shots.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
