- a variation of naught.
nought
Americannoun
-
noughts
plural
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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
See “something will turn up” and “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
After 10 balls on nought he began the counter, often advancing down the pitch.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
History has taught you that pouring out your time, energy and emotions will similarly come to nought.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 3, 2026
They dropped or missed five clear chances overall, the most costly being wicketkeeper Jamie Smith's drop of Head on three and Ben Duckett shelling Alex Carey on nought.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
"Do you Starks have nought but snow between your ears?"
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Earlier, she took on Dame Kelly at a game of bean-bag noughts and crosses.
From BBC ● May 16, 2023
Working with just ones, noughts, and a saucerful of secrets, these ground-breaking artists stand front and centre of any modern corporate or commerical strategy.
From Forbes ● Jun. 30, 2015
Come the naughty noughts, bulging upper-body muscles were eventually co-opted by the Jersey Shore crowd whereupon they gradually lost much of their frisson.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2015
He said the first programs he intended to run on his mega processor were likely to be Tetris, noughts and crosses and 1970s evolutionary simulation Life by mathematician John Conway.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2015
To my mind little Charles is one of the noughts.
From The Justice of the King by Hamilton Drummond
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.
