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# naught

«naught» in Mova's school dictionary: **Nothing** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (naught — uncountable); pronoun (old-fashioned)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned, literary) Nothing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#m1)

2) (mainly US) Zero, the number 0 (UK and others usually write "nought"). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#m2)

3) A good-for-naught is a lazy or useless person who never does anything good. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Found in old books, poems, the Bible and phrases: "come to naught" (fail, come to nothing), "all for naught" (for nothing, wasted). It tells the reader that effort was wasted or a plan failed.

### examples

- All their hard work came to naught when the rain washed the sandcastle away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x1)
- The knight's quest was all for naught. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x2)
- "It is naught but a bad dream," said the wizard. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x3)
- Their plans came to naught. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x4)
- Without water, the seeds will grow to naught. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x5)
- He cared naught for gold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x6)
- The final score was two to naught. (US) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x7)
- “Alas!” said the young man, “her father is a wandering good-for-naught, who has forsaken wife and child, and gone off—who knows where? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/#x8)

### note

Old-fashioned. Spelling trap: "naught" (nothing) and "nought" (zero, UK) are often mixed up; and "naughty" comes from "naught" but means badly behaved. Homophones in many accents: naught, nought.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «naught» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/naught/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.