No thing or nothing?
no thing is a noun meaning “Indicates something is not important or not a big deal”; nothing is a pronoun meaning “Not any thing; no thing”. Use no thing as a noun and nothing as a pronoun (nothing is also a noun: “Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance”). no thing is written as two words and nothing as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between no thing and nothing?
| no thing | nothing | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | pronoun, noun, adverb, adjective, interjection |
| Meaning | Not any thing; no thing An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance | |
| Example | Don't worry about that, it ain't no thing | Don't just say nothing. Tell me what's going on |
| Forms | none | nothings |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈnʌθɪŋ/ /ˈnʌtɪŋ/ /ˈnʌʔn̩/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 355 times per million words |
Sources: no thing and nothing 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 no thing and nothing
no thing
- 1
slangIndicates something is not important or not a big deal
Don't worry about that, it ain't no thing
nothing
- 1
Not any thing; no thing
Don't just say nothing. Tell me what's going on
- 2
Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance
- What happened to your face? - It's nothing
- 3
Completely unimportant
Dallas scored on what had seemed until then like a nothing play
- 4
Never mind; it's not important; forget what I said
- 5
An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum
- 6
A trivial remark especially in the term sweet nothings
- 7
Lacking effort or commitment
The cricketer played a nothing shot
- 8
A nobody (insignificant person)
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, no thing or nothing?
no thing is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; nothing 355 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).