aught

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pronoun \ ˈȯt , ˈät \

Definition of aught

1 :anything

2 :all, everything

for aught I care

for aught we know

See aught defined for English-language learners

See aught defined for kids

aught was our Word of the Day on 08/08/2012. Hear the podcast!

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 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 for a while the phrase "the aughts" was bandied about as a proposed label for the decade that began in the year 2000.

Origin and Etymology of aught

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

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

See Words from the same year

aught

adverb

Definition of aught

archaic

:at all

Origin and Etymology of aught

see ¹aught

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 13th century

See Words from the same year

aught

noun

Definition of aught

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

Examples of aught in a Sentence

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 of aught from the Web

Speaking of being in sync, the early aughts found Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, and co. inexplicably all hankering for a heavily spiked style—

— mackenzie wagoner, Vogue, "Zayn Malik May Be a Solo Artist, But His Boy Band Hair Lives On," 20 July 2017
Chaika has been extremely loyal to Putin, and stayed that way even as Putin reduced the power of the prosecutor’s office in the late aughts.

— julia ioffe, The Atlantic, "What the Heck is a Russian 'Crown Prosecutor'?," 11 July 2017
At his height, an outlandish and flamboyant figure, Lil' Jon was a commercial darling during the mid-aught.

— AL.com, "Southern hip-hop producers who changed the game," 10 July 2017
You were heavily involved with Rock the Vote in the early aughts.

— interview by willy staley, New York Times, "Diddy Doesn’t Like to Get Hot," 6 July 2017
Inspired by a rugby shirt a designer found at a vintage shop and recreated for sale back in the aughts, the capsule collection is full of fun, tropical brights made for warm-weather fun.

— lindsay peoples, The Cut, "J.Crew’s New Rugby-Inspired Capsule Collection Is Pure Summer Fun," 5 July 2017
For a moment in the mid-aughts as major labels came through town to kick the scene’s tires, Bump was primed to be the next breakthrough, riding a series of hot mixtapes to a deal with Atlantic.

— leor galil, Chicago Reader, "Chicago rap hero Bump J makes his grand return at WGCI’s Summer Jam," 29 June 2017
Twenty-three such boxes were filled when LACMA, the tar pits’ neighbor, built a subterranean parking lot in the aughts.

— matthew segal, Los Angeles Magazine, "La Brea Tar Pits Museum Bracing for a Flood of Fossils This Summer," 26 June 2017
Gentrification in the nation’s capital, largely a downtown phenomenon in the early aughts, has spread in all directions, including toward Howard Manor, at Georgia Avenue and Girard Street NW, on the northern edge of Howard’s campus.

— paul duggan, Washington Post, "Howard Manor has more than 70 vacant apartments — and three tenants who refuse to leave," 24 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'aught.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.