nobody
/ˈnəʊ.bɒd.i/pronoun, noun
nobody is spelled N-O-B-O-D-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 89 times per million words in written English, the 1,191st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “no body vs nobody” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a pronoun, nobody means “Not any person; the logical negation of somebody” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in nobody?
| Letters | 6: N-O-B-O-D-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 89 times per million words; the 1,191st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
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).
How common is nobody?
Nobody appears 89 times per million words in written English, the 1,191st 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 nobody?
- /ˈnəʊ.bɒd.i/
- /ˈnəʊ.bə.di/
- /ˈnoʊˌbʌd.i/
Nobody has 3 syllables (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-uk-nobody.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-nobody.wav, En-us-nobody.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with nobody
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: no body (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of nobody
- nobuddy
- nobudy
- nobodies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does nobody mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
pronoun
- 1
Not any person; the logical negation of somebody.
I asked several people, but nobody knew how.
noun
- 1
informalA person dismissed as unimportant.
- 2
Something that has no body or an especially small one.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate nobody?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of nobody: nb.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Nobody in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense unimportant person:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quidam, moins-que-rien, nullité, sous-merde, nul, zéro |
| German | Niemand |
| Portuguese | joão-ninguém, zé-ninguém, ninguém, nulidade |
| Spanish | nadie, don nadie, donnadie, doñanadie, doña nadie, pelagatos |
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 nobody come from?
From Middle English nobody, no-body, no body. By surface analysis, no (“none, not any”, adjective) + body (“one, person, individual”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).