neither here nor there

adj

"neither-here-nor-there" is a 19-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“neither here nor there” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
22
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having no influence or significance on the issue at hand.

Corpus desk

Index EN-neither-here-nor-there · neither here nor there · English

neither here nor there · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 22 letters
  • VOW-8 8 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "N" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for neither here nor there
PropertyValue
Headwordneither here nor there
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters22
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “neither here nor there” in English

neither here nor therefalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

neither here nor there is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Having no influence or significance on the issue at hand.".

neither here nor there doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is neither here nor there, spelled N-E-I-T-H-E-R- -H-E-R-E- -N-O-R- -T-H-E-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Having no influence or significance on the issue at hand.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how neither here nor there appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The fact that pledges willingly submit themselves to hazing is neither here nor there, and any organization that engages in hazing will lose its charter.
  2. I had life troubles and heart troubles which are neither here nor there in this narrative. But, combined with them, were intellectual troubles which are indeed germane.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "neither here nor there"?
"neither here nor there" is spelled N-E-I-T-H-E-R- -H-E-R-E- -N-O-R- -T-H-E-R-E.
What does "neither here nor there" mean?
As an adjective, "neither here nor there" means: Having no influence or significance on the issue at hand.
What language does "neither here nor there" come from?
"neither here nor there" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list