aught

1 of 3

pronoun

ˈȯt 

ˈät

1

: anything

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

: zero, cipher

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.

Synonyms

Noun

• cipher
• goose egg
• naught
• nought
• nil
• nothing
• o
• oh
• zero
• zilch
• zip

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

Noun

Beginning in the early aughts, several D-I schools attempted to turn their club spirit squads into varsity sports programs. —Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 20 Nov. 2024

In the early aughts, living with his wife and two young children in Pasadena, his growing flock began to include new American followers. —Joseph Bien-Kahn, Rolling Stone, 3 Nov. 2024

Though a slicker update of one of horror’s most influential films, this remake didn’t just kick-start a new series of Chainsaw Massacre films but an entire wave of slasher remakes in the early aughts, from Black Christmas to Halloween. —Meagan Navarro, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2024

Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton were besties in the early aughts. —Stephanie Sengwe, People.com, 30 Oct. 2024

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

Phrases Containing aught

• for aught one knows

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Kids Definition

aught

1 of 2 pronoun

ˈȯt 

ˈät

: all entry 3 sense 1

for aught we know

aught

2 of 2 noun

1

: zero entry 1 sense 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