Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Nonexistence; nothingness.
  • noun The figure 0; a cipher; a zero.
  • pronoun Nothing.
  • adjective Nonexistent.
  • adjective Insignificant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Not anything; nothing.
  • noun A cipher; zero.
  • noun . Wickedness.
  • Of little or no account or value; worthless; valueless; useless.
  • . Lost; ruined.
  • . In a moral sense, wicked; bad; naughty. See naughty.
  • In no degree; not at all; not. See not.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In no degree; not at all.
  • adjective Of no value or account; worthless; bad; useless.
  • adjective obsolete Hence, vile; base; naughty.
  • noun Nothing.
  • noun The arithmetical character 0; a cipher. See Cipher.
  • noun to treat as of no account; to disregard; to despise; to defy; to treat with ignominy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, Ireland, New Zealand (now rare or archaic in US, Canada) Zero.
  • noun UK, Ireland, New Zealand (now rare or archaic in US, Canada) Nothing; nothingness.
  • pronoun nothing

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun complete failure
  • noun a quantity of no importance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English nāwiht : , no; see ne in Indo-European roots + wiht, thing; see wekti- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht, "no whit".

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Examples

  • It was the mysterious, evil forest, a charnel house of silence, wherein naught moved save strange tiny birds -- the strangeness of them making the mystery more profound, for they flitted on noiseless wings, emitting neither song nor chirp, and they were mottled with morbid colours, having all the seeming of orchids, flying blossoms of sickness and decay.

    Chapter 25 2010

  • When this was ended and done, for naught is durable save the Living, the Eternal,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Avaunt, O Whiteness,463 wherein naught of brightness gladdens sight

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Deity who hath power over all and from whom naught is hidden, the

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • But naught is better for generous youth than patience under its cares and miseries.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Then he opened the door of his treasure closet, but found therein naught of his money nor his hoards; whereupon he recovered from the intoxication of fancy and shook off his infatuation and knew that it was his wife herself who had turned the tables upon him and outwitted him with her wiles.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Moslems, we have taken captives your Sultan and your Wazir who hath the ordering of your affairs; and except ye leave off fighting us, we will slay you to the last man; but an you yield yourselves we will take you to our King, who will make peace with you on condition that you quit our country and return home and harm us in naught, and we will do you no harm in aught.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • And naught is left to seek or find of all that I desired:

    The Old Road to Paradise 1918

  • Now naught is left of Ukraina save her songs – but in that song she still lives, engraved in the heart of the people.

    Songs of Ukraina, With Ruthenian Poems 1916

  • It was the mysterious, evil forest, a charnel house of silence, wherein naught moved save strange tiny birds -- the strangeness of them making the mystery more profound, for they flitted on noiseless wings, emitting neither song nor chirp, and they were mottled with morbid colours, having all the seeming of orchids, flying blossoms of sickness and decay.

    The Head-Hunters 1911

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