Nay or neigh?
nay is a noun meaning “A vote against”; neigh is a noun meaning “The cry of a horse”. They sound the same (/neɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) nay is about 8.7 times as common as neigh.
What is the difference between nay and neigh?
| nay | neigh | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb, interjection, noun, verb, adjective | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A vote against A person who voted against | The cry of a horse To make its cry To make a sound similar to a horse's cry |
| Example | His face was dirty, nay, filthy | none recorded |
| Forms | nays | neighs |
| Pronunciation | /neɪ/ | /neɪ̯/ /næɪ̯/ /ne/ |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: nay and neigh in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of nay and neigh
nay
- 1
A vote against
I vote nay, even though the motion is popular, because I would rather be right than popular
- 2
A person who voted against
The vote is 4 in favor and 20 opposed; the nays have it
neigh
- 1
The cry of a horse
- 2
To make its cry
- 3
To make a sound similar to a horse's cry
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, nay or neigh?
nay appears 2.7 times per million words; neigh about once in every 3 million words.
nay 2.7 times per million wordsneigh about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search nay vs neigh?
“nay vs neigh” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“neigh vs nay”, “nay or neigh”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.