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

• nothing
• zero
• naught

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

Since then, the Hussar pelisse ironically became something of a uniform in the early aughts for musicians, including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé and Rihanna, and bands such as British alt-indie group The Libertines and US pop-punk band My Chemical Romance. —Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2025

From Hilary Duff to High School Musical, the aughts were made for tweens who loved music, and so much of those iconic musical performances came from the Disney Channel. —Allison McClain Merrill, Parents, 10 Oct. 2025

The latest aughts-era tabloid figure being reconsidered is Victoria Beckham, in Netflix’s three-part documentary series of the same name dropping on Thursday. —Scarlett Harris, Time, 9 Oct. 2025

Kerr—an absolute wall of a man, and thus a role befitting of Johnson—becamerenowned for his unassailable winning streak throughout the late ’90s and early aughts. —David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025

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

Rhymes for aught

• baht
• blot
• bott
• bought
• brought
• caught
• clot
• cot
• cott
• dot
• fought
• fraught

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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