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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

note.

A symbol or annotation.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/nəʊ̯t/Received-Pronunciation/noʊ̯t/Canada, General-American/nəʉ̯t/Australia/nɐʉ̯t/New-Zealand
  1. A symbol or annotation. A mark or token by which a thing may be known; a visible sign; a character; a distinctive mark or feature; a characteristic quality.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A symbol or annotation. A mark, or sign, made to call attention, to point out something to notice, or the like; a sign, or token, proving or giving evidence.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A symbol or annotation. A brief remark; a marginal comment or explanation; hence, an annotation on a text or author; a comment; a critical, explanatory, or illustrative observation.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A written or printed communication or commitment. A brief piece of writing intended to assist the memory; a memorandum; a minute.

    countable · uncountable
    I left him a note to remind him to take out the trash.
  5. A written or printed communication or commitment. A short informal letter; a billet.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A written or printed communication or commitment. An academic treatise (often without regard to length); a treatment; a discussion paper; (loosely) any contribution to an academic discourse.

    countable · literary · uncountable
  7. A written or printed communication or commitment. A diplomatic missive or written communication.

    countable · uncountable
  8. A written or printed communication or commitment. A written or printed paper (or digital equivalent) acknowledging a debt, and promising payment.

    countable · uncountable
    a promissory note
    a note of hand
  9. A written or printed communication or commitment. A list of items or of charges; an account.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  10. A written or printed communication or commitment. A piece of paper or polymer money; a banknote.

    countable · uncountable
    I didn't have any coins to pay with, so I used a note.
  11. A written or printed communication or commitment. A small size of paper used for writing letters or notes.

    countable · uncountable
  12. A sound. A character, variously formed, to indicate the length of a tone, and variously placed upon the staff to indicate its pitch.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A sound. A musical sound; a tone; an utterance; a tune; a beat of a drum.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A sound. A key of the piano or organ.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  15. A sound. A call or song of a bird.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  16. A sound. An indicator to which the player must correctly time some input.

    countable · uncountable
  17. An element of a scent, fragrance, or perfume, especially as a descriptor or category.

    countable · uncountable
  18. Observation; notice; heed.

    uncountable
  19. Reputation; distinction.

    uncountable
    a poet of note
  20. A critical comment.

    countable · uncountable
    Your performance was fantastic! I have just one note: you were a little flat in bars 35 and 36.
  21. Notification; information; intelligence.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  22. Mark of disgrace.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English note, from Old English not, nōt (“note, mark, sign”) and Old French note (“letter, note”), both from Latin nota (“mark, sign, remark, note”).

verb/nəʊ̯t/Received-Pronunciation/noʊ̯t/Canada, General-American/nəʉ̯t/Australia/nɐʉ̯t/New-Zealand
  1. To notice with care; to observe; to remark; to heed.

    transitive
    If you look to the left, you can note the old cathedral.
    Note the difference between progesterone and progrestogen: the former is simply a type of the latter.
  2. To record in writing; to make a memorandum of.

    transitive
    We noted his speech.
  3. To denote; to designate.

    transitive
    The modular multiplicative inverse of x may be noted x⁻¹.
  4. To annotate.

    transitive
  5. To set down in musical characters.

    transitive
  6. To record on the back of (a bill, draft, etc.) a refusal of acceptance, as the ground of a protest, which is done officially by a notary.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English note, from Old English not, nōt (“note, mark, sign”) and Old French note (“letter, note”), both from Latin nota (“mark, sign, remark, note”).

noun/nəʊ̯t/Received-Pronunciation/noʊ̯t/Canada, General-American/nəʉ̯t/Australia/nɐʉ̯t/New-Zealand
  1. That which is needed or necessary; business; duty; work.

    Ireland · Northern-England · Scotland · UK · dialectal · uncountable · usually
  2. Milk-giving by a cow or sow; (specifically) the period following calving or farrowing, during which a cow or sow is most productive and useful.

    Ireland · Northern-England · Scotland · UK · dialectal · uncountable · usually
  3. The milk given by a cow or sow during such period.

    Ireland · Northern-England · Scotland · UK · broadly · dialectal · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English note (“use, usefulness, profit”), from Old English notu (“use, enjoyment, advantage, profit, utility”), from Proto-West Germanic *notu, from Proto-Germanic *nutō (“enjoyment, utilisation”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with West Frisian not (“yield, produce, crop”), Dutch genot (“enjoyment, pleasure”), Dutch nut (“usefulness, utility, behoof”), German Nutzen (“benefit, usefulness, utility”), Icelandic not (“use”, noun). Related also to Old English notian (“to enjoy, make use of, employ”), Old English nēotan (“to use, enjoy”), Old High German niozan (“to use, enjoy”) (Modern German genießen (“to enjoy”)), Modern German benutzen (“to use”). Related to nait.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.