overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nothing.

Not any thing; no thing.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

pron/ˈnʌθɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈnʌtɪŋ//ˈnʌʔn̩//ˈnʌfɪŋ/
  1. Not any thing; no thing.

    indefinite · pronoun
    Don't just say nothing. Tell me what's going on.
    Nothing bad will happen, will it?
  2. An absence of anything, including empty space, brightness, darkness, matter, or a vacuum.

    indefinite · pronoun
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/ˈnʌθɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈnʌtɪŋ//ˈnʌʔn̩//ˈnʌfɪŋ/
  1. Something trifling, or of no consequence or importance.

    countable · uncountable
    - What happened to your face? - It's nothing.
  2. A trivial remark especially in the term sweet nothings.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A nobody (insignificant person).

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

adv/ˈnʌθɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈnʌtɪŋ//ˈnʌʔn̩//ˈnʌfɪŋ/
  1. Not at all; in no way.

    archaic · not-comparable
    Nothing too much out of the ordinary.
    Nothing dismayed, I repeated my query.
Where this word comes from

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”).

adj/ˈnʌθɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈnʌtɪŋ//ˈnʌʔn̩//ˈnʌfɪŋ/
  1. Completely unimportant.

    not-comparable
    Dallas scored on what had seemed until then like a nothing play.
  2. Lacking effort or commitment.

    not-comparable
    The cricketer played a nothing shot.
Where this word comes from

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”).

intj/ˈnʌθɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈnʌtɪŋ//ˈnʌʔn̩//ˈnʌfɪŋ/
  1. Never mind; it's not important; forget what I said.

Where this word comes from

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”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

nothing has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

nothing studionothing workshello, nothing

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.