aught

1 of 3

pronoun

ˈȯt How to pronounce aught (audio)
ˈät
1
2
: all, everything
for aught I care
for aught we know

aught

2 of 3

adverb

archaic
: at all

aught

3 of 3

noun

1
2
archaic : nonentity, nothing
3
aughts plural : the ten year period from 2000 through 2009
By the middle of the aughts, … the percentage of 26-year-olds living with their parents reached 20 percent, nearly double what it was in 1970.Don Peck

Did you know?

"If you know aught which does behove my knowledge / Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not / In ignorant concealment," Polixenes begs Camillo in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, employing the "anything" sense of aught. Shakespeare didn't coin the pronoun aught, which has been a part of the English language since before the 12th century, but he did put it to frequent use. Writers today may be less likely to use aught than were their literary predecessors, but the pronoun does continue to turn up occasionally. Aught can also be a noun meaning "zero," and "the aughts" is heard occasionally for the decade at the beginning of a century (say, 1900-1909 or 2000-2009) in which the penultimate digit is a zero.

Examples of aught in a Sentence

Noun for dates, the year is automatically listed as a pair of aughts, so the user has to scroll down to the correct figure
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Noun
The social media wunderkind, who has amassed over seven million followers on the video-sharing platform, is reviving the aughts era staple with her latest campaign and collaboration. Marissa Muller, WWD, 23 Jan. 2025 And anyone who lived through the aughts will recognize True Religion’s telltale stitching across the back pockets of his baggy, low-slung jeans. Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 22 Jan. 2025 The 'Frozen' star and voice actress fell in love while working together on a play in the early aughts Comments Josh Gad's wife, Ida Darvish, has been in his corner long before the actor starred in Disney hits such as Frozen and Beauty and the Beast. Samantha Stutsman, People.com, 15 Jan. 2025 Thanks to easily burnable CDs and the proliferation of shareable MP3s, record companies lost money to digital piracy in the early aughts. Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for aught 

Word History

Etymology

Pronoun and Adverb

Middle English, from Old English āwiht, from ā ever + wiht creature, thing — more at aye, wight

Noun

alteration (resulting from false division of a naught) of naught

First Known Use

Pronoun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adverb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1872, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of aught was before the 12th century

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near aught

Cite this Entry

“Aught.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aught. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Kids Definition

aught

1 of 2 pronoun
ˈȯt How to pronounce aught (audio)
ˈät
: all entry 3 sense 1
for aught we know

aught

2 of 2 noun
1
2
: the first decade of a century
Etymology

Pronoun

Old English āwiht "anything," from ā "ever, always" and wiht "creature, thing"

Noun

from naught "zero," from mistaking a naught for an aught

More from Merriam-Webster on aught

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!