naught
/nɔːt/ pronoun, noun
Also a form of nought
Forms naughts nought
- pronoun Nothing. “Naught can come of this, you mark my words.”
- noun (archaic) Nothingness.
Synonyms
nothing nil nix nada null aught cipher cypher goose egg zero zilch zip zippo
Etymology
From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne + aught.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Nothing. [Written also nought.]
- noun The arithmetical character 0; a cipher. See Cipher. To set at naught, to treat as of no account; to disregard; to despise; to defy; to treat with ignominy. "Ye have set at naught all my counsel." Prov.
- adverb In no degree; not at all. Chaucer.
- adjective Of no value or account; worthless; bad; useless.
Etymology [OE. naught, nought, naht, nawiht, AS. n, n, n; ne not + wiht thing, whit; hence, not ever a whit. See No, adv. Whit, and cf. Aught, Not.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “naught”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details