naught
pronunciation
How to pronounce naught in British English:
UK [nɔːt]
How to pronounce naught in American English:
US [nɔːt]
-
- Noun:
- a quantity of no importance
- complete failure
Word Origin
- naught (n.)
- Old English nawiht "nothing," lit "no whit," from na "no" (from PIE root *ne- "no, not;" see un- (1)) + wiht "thing, creature, being" (see wight). Cognate with Old Saxon neowiht "nothing," Old High German niwiht, Gothic ni waihts. It also developed an adjectival sense in Old English, "good for nothing," which by mid-16c. had focused to "morally bad, wicked." In arithmetic, "the figure zero" from 1640s.
Example
- 1. Otherwise it 's all for naught !
- 2. Yet all this may be for naught .
- 3. But his push may be for naught : americans have become allergic to spending .
- 4. Talk of building a power plant that runs on " clean coal " has , as yet , come to naught .
- 5. Those talks , in addition to last-minute settlement negotiations ordered last month , came to naught .