nought
/nɔːt/
"nought" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nought” is an uncommon English word, ranked #52,527 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #52,527
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Nothing; something which does not exist.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nought |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /nɔːt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #52,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nought” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nought is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɔːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,527 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for nought in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not. The correct English form is nought, spelled N-O-U-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1Nothing; something which does not exist.
- 2A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
- 3Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.
- 4The figure or character representing, or having the shape of, zero.
Etymology
From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not.
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.
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Using “nought”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-O-U-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /nɔːt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.