nothing
/ˈnʌθ.ɪŋ/
"nothing" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nothing” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #256. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #256
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Not any thing; no thing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nothing · nothing · English
nothing · rank #256 · 11 variants · 4 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #256
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH case
Nearest frequency peer: case (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “nothing”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- already
already
99,748 corpus weight
- anything
anything
99,747 corpus weight
- case
case
99,746 corpus weight
- nothing
nothing
99,745 corpus weight
- person
person
99,744 corpus weight
- today
today
99,743 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “nothing” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nothing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | /ˈnʌθ.ɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #256 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nothing” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around nothing (IPA /ˈnʌθ.ɪŋ/), apronoun. Corpus frequency is #256 among 1,534 “N” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for nothing, with forms such as "nnothing", "nohting", and "nothhing". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "noting", "noticing", "netting", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nothyng, noon thing, non thing, na þing, nan thing, nan þing, from Old English nāþing, nān þing (“nothing”, literally “not any thing”), equivalent to no + thing. Compare Old English nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “no thing”), Swedish ingen… The correct English form is nothing, spelled N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Not any thing; no thing.
- 2An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nothing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Don't just say nothing. Tell me what's going on.
Nothing bad will happen, will it?
Etymology
From Middle English nothyng, noon thing, non thing, na þing, nan thing, nan þing, from Old English nāþing, nān þing (“nothing”, literally “not any thing”), equivalent to no + thing. Compare Old English nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “no thing”), Swedish ingenting (“nothing”, literally “not any thing, no thing”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- nnothing
- nohting
- nothhing
- nothign
- nothingg
- nothinng
- nothnig
- notihng
- notthing
- ntohing
- onthing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nothing - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "nothing"?
What does "nothing" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "nothing"?
How do you pronounce "nothing"?
What is the origin of the word "nothing"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nothing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "nothing". Here's where to go from here.
- "nothing" maps to 4 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "noting". View pair
- 11 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #256 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "N" letter cohort. N–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.