nought
Americannoun
noun
noun
Usage
What does nought mean? Nought means nothing or none, as in All of my efforts at winning the game were for nought because I lost badly.Nought also refers to zero. For example, if your math class is in Room One-Nought-Seven, it is in Room 107. The informal term noughties for the decade of 2000–2009 comes from this sense.Nought is an alternate spelling of naught, which has the exact same meaning.Example: I had nought to do with breaking the lamp, but my mother still thought I was involved.
Etymology
Origin of nought
before 900; Middle English; Old English nōht, contraction of nōwiht, equivalent to ne not + ōwiht aught 1
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.
The visitors had lost two wickets for six runs and Root and Brook were both on nought, only for England's best two batters to combine.
From BBC
Root said he did not feel like he needed to bat in Canberra, despite falling to Mitchell Starc for scores of nought and eight in Perth.
From BBC
On nought not out at the end of the second day of the third Test against Pakistan at The Oval, Cook was convinced he was playing his last Test innings before being dropped.
From BBC
He had Lions captain Tom Haines miscue to mid-on with the fifth ball he bowled then Bethell, who spent 15 balls on nought, pulled to square leg.
From BBC
Vaughan made scores of 33 and nought, with no real hint of the glut of runs to come.
From BBC
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.
