nothing

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• (nonstandard) nuffin, nuffink, nuttin'

Etymology

no +‎ thing

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŭth'ĭng, IPA: /ˈnʌθɪŋ/, SAMPA: /"nVTIN/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌθɪŋ
• Hyphenation: noth‧ing

Pronoun

Wikipedia nothing

There is nothing in this picture.

1. Not any thing; no thing.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:

     the players see little or nothing of their cards at first starting

2. An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum.
3. (slang, in double negatives) Anything

   I didn't see nothing. [= I didn't see anything].

Synonyms

• (not any thing):
  • (standard): not a thing
  • (slang): jack, nada, zip
  • (vulgar slang): bugger all, jack shit, sod all (British), fuck all
  • (Northern English dialect): nowt

See Wikisaurus:nothing

• (something trifling): nothing of any consequence, nothing consequential, nothing important, nothing significant, something inconsequential, something insignificant, something of no consequence, something trifling, something unimportant

Antonyms

• anything
• everything
• something

Translations

not any thing

Afrikaans: niks Albanian: asgjë, kurrgjë Ancient: οὐδέν n. Arabic: لا شئ (ar) (laa shay') Basque: ezerez, deusez Belarusian: нішто (be) (ništó), нічога (be) (ničóha) Bengali: কিছু না (bn) (kichu na) Bosnian: ništa (bs) Bulgarian: нищо (bg) (níšto) Catalan: res (ca) Chamicuro: kala Cherokee: ᎠᏝ ᎪᎱᏍᏗ (chr) (átla gohusdi) Chinese: Mandarin: 沒什麼 (cmn), 没什么 (cmn) (méi shénme), 沒事 (cmn), 没事 (cmn) (méishì) Croatian: ništa (hr) Czech: nic (cs) Danish: intet (da), ingenting (da) Dutch: niets (nl), niks (nl) Esperanto: nenio, nenion Finnish: ei mitään French: ne + verb + rien Georgian: არაფერი (ka) German: nichts (de) Greek: τίποτε (el) (tipote) n., τίποτα (el) (tipota) n. Hebrew: see usage notes at שׁוּם דָּבָר (he) and כְּלוּם (he) Hindi: कुछ नहीं (hi) (kuch nahī̃) Hungarian: semmi (hu) Icelandic: ekkert (is) n., neitt (is) Ido: nulo Interlingua: nihil, nil Italian: non + verb + niente

Japanese: 何も (ja) (なにも, nani-mo), 何でもない (ja) (なんでもない, nandemonai), 別に (ja) (べつに, betsu-ni) Korean: 아무것도...없다 (amugeotto...eopda) Kurdish: هیچ Latin: nihil n. (indeclinable) nihilum n. Latvian: nekas Lithuanian: niekas Luxembourgish: näischt (lb) Macedonian: ништо (mk) (níšto) n. Navajo: ádin Norwegian: ingenting (no), inget (no) Persian: هیچ (fa) (hič), هیچ‌چیز (fa) (hič-čiz) Polish: nic (pl) Portuguese: nada (pt) Romanian: nimic (ro) Russian: ничто (ru) (ništó), ничего (ru) (ničegó) (read: ničevó) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ништа (sh) Roman: ništa (sh) Sicilian: nenti Slovak: nič (sk) Slovene: nič (sl) Spanish: nada (es) Swedish: inget (sv), ingenting (sv), intet (sv) Tagalog: wala (tl) Thai: ไม่มีอะไร (th) (mâi mee àrai) Tok Pisin: nogat samting Turkish: hiç (tr), hiç bir şey (tr) Ukrainian: ніщо (uk) (niščó), нічого (uk) (ničóho) Urdu: کچھ نہیں (ur) (kuch nahī̃) Vietnamese: không (vi), không có gì (vi), không cái gì (vi)

something trifling

Albanian: bosh (sq) German: nichts, gar nichts Greek: τίποτα (el) (tipota) n. Kurdish: هیچ Macedonian: ништо (mk) (níšto) n.

Norwegian: ingenting (no) Romanian: nimic (ro) n., fleac (ro) n., bagatelă (ro) f. Swedish: inget (sv), ingenting (sv) Tagalog: wala (tl), wala lang (tl) Turkish: ehemmiyetsiz (tr), önemsiz (tr)

Noun

nothing (plural nothings)

1. Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance

   What happened to your face? — It's nothing.

2. A trivial remark (especially in the term sweet nothings)
3. A nobody (insignificant person)

   You're nothing to me now!

Adverb

nothing (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Not at all; in no way.
   • 1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems:

     The Motion from London to Syria is as much as nothing; and nothing altereth the relation which is between them.

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to the pronoun, noun, or adverb nothing

anything everything

something

thing

Derived terms

Terms derived from the pronoun, noun, or adverb nothing

benothing better than nothing for nothing

have nothing on (someone) leave nothing in the tank less than nothing

next to nothing nothing doing nothingness

See also

• nobody, no one
• nowhere

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: part · off · took · #162: nothing · God · three · put