neither … nor

conj

"neither-nor" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“neither … nor” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a conjunction. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas (This entry is a translation hub.)

Corpus desk

Index EN-neither-nor · neither … nor · English

neither … nor · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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 … nor
PropertyValue
Headwordneither … nor
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechConjunction
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “neither … nor” in English

neither … norfalls 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 … nor is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aconjunction. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas (This entry is a translation hub.)".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for neither … nor, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is neither … nor, spelled N-E-I-T-H-E-R- -…- -N-O-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas (This entry is a translation hub.)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. She was neither learned nor intelligent, but she contrived to dress both herself and her daughter out of a meagre jointure, supplying with her clever fingers what her purse could not buy;[…].
  2. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them could neither read nor write.

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 … nor"?
"neither … nor" is spelled N-E-I-T-H-E-R- -…- -N-O-R.
What does "neither … nor" mean?
As a conjunction, "neither … nor" means: used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas (This entry is a translation hub.)
What language does "neither … nor" come from?
"neither … nor" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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