not
/nɑt/adverb, conjunction, interjection, noun
not is spelled N-O-T. The wrong spelling people search most is onot: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 667 of all searches for the word. Not is an adverb meaning “Negates the meaning of the modified verb”.
How many letters and syllables are in not?
| Letters | 3: N-O-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 4,898 times per million words; the 23rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, onot, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 do you spell not?
Not is spelled N-O-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 651 of the searches for not in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is not?
Not appears 4,898 times per million words in written English, the 23rd 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 not?
- UK /nɒt/
- British /nɔt/
- US /nɑt/
Not has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-not.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-not.wav, En-us-not.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with not
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: knot (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with not?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as not from its last stressed vowel (/ɑt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ton.
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 not
- not!
- nots plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does not mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Negates the meaning of the modified verb.
Did you take out the trash? – No, I did not. I do not think it was my turn, was it?
- 2
To no degree.
That is not red; it's green.
- 3
Used to indicate the opposite or near opposite, often in a form of understatement.
That day was not the best day of my life. (meaning the day was bad or awful)
- 4
Used before a determiner phrase, a pronominal phrase etc. to convey a negative attitude (e.g. denial, sadness, anger) towards something.
Oh god, not that! Anything but that!
- 5
informalUsed before a non-finite clause (especially a gerund-participial clause) or less commonly a determiner phrase to ironically convey some attitude (e.g. surprise, incredulity, amusement, or embarrassment) towards something.
Not me writing example sentences again.
conjunction
- 1
And not.
I wanted a plate of shrimp, not a bucket of chicken.
interjection
- 1
slangUsed to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically.
Near-synonyms: I don't think; psych; bender (obsolete, UK)
noun
- 1
An instance of using the word “not”; a negation or denial.
- 2
Alternative letter-case form of NOT (“unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true”).
noun
- 1
A unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Not in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ne ... pas, pas, ne , non , ou pas , NON |
| German | nicht, net, nit, nüt, nöt, niad |
| Portuguese | não , só que não |
| Spanish | no |
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.