Think of the anguish these guys go through, watching their All-Star seasons, ginormous home runs and pitching shutouts go for naught. Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 18 July 2022 Of course, all these hypotheticals could be for naught and Newgarden could be cleared to race Saturday. Jenna Fryer, Orlando Sentinel, 27 July 2022 Such acts of self-denial are shown to be for naught: God exhibits a blasé indifference toward suffering. Jess Bergman, The New Republic, 22 June 2022 When Biden finally called bin Zayed last month, he was told that the time was not right, and promises from both sides to reschedule have so far come to naught.Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2022 The second was reducing the number of bid losers—cities or countries who sometimes spent millions for naught. Joshua Robinson, WSJ, 29 Mar. 2022 The situational dashboard reports the R naught, a value that measures spread, for the region and individual areas of it for the last seven days. Terry Demio, The Enquirer, 8 Feb. 2022 All your careful tuning care will be for naught after a few days of rust on the edges. Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 5 Feb. 2015 The situational dashboard reports the R naught, a value that measures spread, for the region and individual areas of it.The Enquirer, 23 Dec. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Pronoun and Noun
Middle English nought, from Old English nāwiht, from nā no + wiht creature, thing — more at no, wight
First Known Use
Pronoun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of naught was before the 12th century