# nothing

> English word · Pronoun · IPA /ˈnʌθ.ɪŋ/ · frequency rank #256

## Definitions
1. Not any thing; no thing.
2. An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum.

## 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”).

## Easily confused with
- **noting** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nothing-vs-noting)
- **noticing** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nothing-vs-noticing)
- **netting** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/netting-vs-nothing)
- **nodding** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/nodding-vs-nothing)

## Common misspellings (11)
`nnothing`, `nohting`, `nothhing`, `nothign`, `nothingg`, `nothinng`, `nothnig`, `notihng`, `notthing`, `ntohing`, `onthing`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/nothing