Definition of NOT

not

Meanings

Plural: nots

Adverb

  • negation of a word or group of words
    • "he does not speak French"
    • "she is not going"
    • "they are not friends"
    • "not many"
    • "not much"
    • "not at all"

Adv

  • Negates the meaning of the modified verb.
  • To no degree.
  • Used to indicate the opposite or near opposite, often in a form of understatement.
  • Used before a determiner phrase, a pronominal phrase etc. to convey a negative attitude (e.g. denial, sadness, anger) towards something.
  • Used before a non-finite clause (especially a gerund-participial clause) or less commonly a determiner phrase to ironically convey some attitude (e.g. surprise, incredulity, amusement, embarrassment) towards something.

Conj

  • And not.

Intj

  • Used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically.

Noun

  • An instance of using the word “not”; a negation or denial.
  • Alternative letter-case form of NOT (“unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true”).

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English not, nat, variant of noght, naht (“not, nothing”), from Old English *nōht, nāht (“nought, nothing”), short for nōwiht, nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “not anything”), corresponding to ne (“not”) + ōwiht, āwiht (“anything”), corresponding to ā (“ever, always”) + wiht (“thing, creature”).
Cognate with Scots nat, naucht (“not”), Saterland Frisian nit (“not”), West Frisian net (“not”), Dutch niet (“not”), German nicht (“not”). Compare nought, naught and aught. More at no, wight, whit.

Synonyms

non

Scrabble Score: 3

not is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
not is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
not is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 4

not is a valid Words With Friends word