naught
/nɔːt/pronoun, noun
naught is spelled N-A-U-G-H-T: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “naught vs nought” about 210 times a month (Google, United States). As a pronoun, naught means “Nothing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in naught?
| Letters | 6: N-A-U-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,418th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is naught?
Naught appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce naught?
- UK /nɔːt/
- British /noːt/
- /nɔt/
Naught has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-nought.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with naught
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: nought (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: nought.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with naught?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as naught from its last stressed vowel (/ɔt/, British pronunciation):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of naught
- nought
- naughts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does naught mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
pronoun
- 1
Nothing.
Naught can come of this, you mark my words.
noun
- 1
archaicNothingness.
- 2
USdatedAlternative spelling of nought.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Naught in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense nothingness:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does naught come from?
From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne + aught.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).