no one

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See also: noone, Noone, noöne, and no-one

English

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WOTD – 4 November 2020

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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no one

  1. Used in contrast to anyone, someone or everyone: not one person; nobody.
    Synonyms: nobody, none
    Antonyms: all, everyone, someone, anyone, everybody, somebody, anybody
    We went to the store but no one was there.
    • 1578, [Pierre de la Place], “That the Vocation of Men, hath beene a Thing Vnknown vnto Philosophers, […]”, in Ægremont Ratcliffe [i.e., Egremont Radcliffe], transl., Politiqve Discourses, Treating of the Differences and Inequalities of Vocations, as well Publique, as Priuate: […], London: […] Edward Aggas, →OCLC, book I, folio 8, recto:
      Sundrie greate perſonages bothe learned and well acquainted with affaires, haue both learnedly, and wiſely written of Politique matters, [...] howbeit there is no one among them all, that hath once buſied himſelfe about the ruling, or direction of the Publique eſtate, in that point, that apperteineth to the vocation of men, [...]
    • 1684, John Boccacio [i.e., Giovanni Boccaccio], “The Sixth Novel. Sufficiently Declaring, that how Mighty Soever the Power of Love is, yet a Magnanimous and Truly Generous Heart, It Can by No Means Fully Conquer.”, in The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccacio, the First Refiner of Italian Prose: […], 5th edition, London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 437:
      Where Love preſumeth into place, / Let no one ſing in Loves diſgrace.
    • 1763, J[ean-]J[acques] Rousseau, “Book V”, in [William Kenrick], transl., Emilius and Sophia: Or, A New System of Education. […], 2nd edition, volume IV, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt […], →OCLC, pages 90–91:
      Many may boaſt finer eyes, a handſomer mouth, a more commanding figure; but no one can have a better turned ſhape, a fairer complexion, a whiter hand, a more delicate foot, a more benign aſpect, a more bewitching countenance. Without dazzling, ſhe engages, ſhe charms, and no one can tell how.
    • 1848, Jonathan Morgan, transl., The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. […], stereotype edition, Portland, Or.: S. H. Colesworthy;  […], II Corinthians 7:2, page 222, column 2:
      Receive us. We have wronged noöne, we have corrupted noöne, we have taken advantage of noöne.
    • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Remarkable Incident of Doctor Lanyon”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 55–56:
      'The doctor was confined to the house,' Poole said, 'and saw no one.' On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 6:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between. His clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter or a farce, or a ballade or a story, no one—neither clerks nor friends nor compositors—would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:
      The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
    • 1991, Craig Smoryński, “Weak Formal Theories of Arithmetic”, in Logical Number Theory I: An Introduction (Universitext), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, page 269:
      However, the transcendence of was so difficult a problem that noöne in the audience would live to see its solution. Within a few years, [Carl Ludwig] Siegel had proven this transcendence!
    • 2020 June 3, Christian Wolmar, “Unworkable Policies Cripple Our Beleaguered Railway”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 51:
      And why has no one in the [rail] industry advocated for a universal requirement for face covering (even if it's just a scarf or old tea towel), [...]
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see no,‎ one.
    No one athlete could pull off such a stunt!
    • 2017, Bob Doppelt, Leading Change toward Sustainability: A Change-Management Guide for Business, Government and Civil Society, 2nd edition, Routledge, →ISBN:
      No one solution on its own can generate successful change.

Usage notes

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  • Unlike most pronouns, no one is usually written as two words or with a hyphen:
    • American users (COCA) prefer the spelling no one to either noone or no-one by more than 500 to 1.
    • UK users (BNC) prefer no one to no-one 4 to 1, and to noone 50 to 1.
  • No one has a higher degree of formality than nobody.
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  • In written use, American users (COCA) use no one 60% more than they use nobody, whereas UK users (BNC) use nobody three times more than they use no one. For the spoken BNC usage, mostly informal, nobody is used nearly 10 times more often than all spellings of no one.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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