nowhere

adverb no·where \ ˈnō-ˌ(h)wer , -(h)wər \

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Examples: nowhere in a Sentence

Definition of nowhere

1 : not in or at any place

The book is nowhere to be found.

2 : to no place

I've gotten nowhere with my research.

Arguing will get us nowhere.

3 : not at all : not to the least extent —usually used with near

nowhere near as serious

nowhere near enough

See nowhere defined for English-language learners

See nowhere defined for kids

Examples of nowhere in a Sentence

I have nowhere to go.
Nowhere is there more of a population problem than in this city.

Recent Examples of nowhere from the Web

Well, in the land of brainless politicians, even no-brainer pieces of legislation sometimes go nowhere.

— heather knight, SFChronicle.com, "Car break-in crackdown bill made perfect sense. California lawmakers killed it," 15 June 2018
Big Bend National Park, Texas, miles from nowhere, millions of stars, ultimate solitude.

— paul daugherty, Cincinnati.com, "Paul Daugherty: What's on your bucket list, Cincinnati sports fans?," 14 June 2018
After all, her obsession with food didn’t come from nowhere.

— cheryl strayed, New York Times, "Is Avoiding My Body Issues an Issue?," 12 June 2018
For hundreds of thousands of women from all walks of life, the pageant’s influence on beauty ideals, while nowhere near perfect (considering the limited range of body types), was and remains mind-boggling powerful.

— nancy redd, Glamour, "I Won the Miss America Swimsuit Competition, but I Couldn’t Be Happier It’s Canceled," 12 June 2018
If Ocean’s 8 had dropped out of almost nowhere—that is, without six months’ worth of advance hype—we could all be pleasantly surprised by it and have a great time.

— stephanie zacharek, Time, "Review: Ocean's 8 Boasts a Great Cast But Lacks Champagne-Bubble Lightness," 9 June 2018
Ideas for stories come from everywhere and nowhere, and their genesis is generally the least interesting aspect of their creation.

— barbara vandenburgh, azcentral, "Author biopic ‘Mary Shelley’ is simply ordinary," 7 June 2018
There are several families who live here, and they are being run over one by one — babies and adults — by uncaring, in-a-hurry-to-get-nowhere people.

— lauren ritchie, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Dog lovers emerge to support owners who border collie was hit and left by the road," 7 June 2018
The Alaska Tax Division in December, getting nowhere with earlier requests, issued a subpoena to obtain Turo's financial records in Alaska back to 2009, said Ken Alper, division director.

— alex demarban, Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska sues Turo, an Airbnb-style firm for car rentals, over tax," 6 June 2018

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

First Known Use of nowhere

before 12th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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nowhere

noun

Definition of nowhere

1 : a nonexistent place

2 : an unknown, distant, or obscure place or state

rose to fame out of nowhere

— miles from nowhere

: in an extremely remote place

See nowhere defined for English-language learners

Examples of nowhere in a Sentence

from the looks of things, we're stranded in nowhere and most likely its proverbial middle
in a few short years he rose out of nowhere to prominence in the dot-com world

Recent Examples of nowhere from the Web

Known by its map designation as Area 51, this middle-of-nowhere site became a new top-secret military base.

— matt blitz, Popular Mechanics, "The Real Story Behind the Myth of Area 51," 14 Sep. 2017
NY Ave is a thoroughfare, pretty much a freeway because the commuter and truck traffic have nowhere else to go - like on the real freeway that was stopped by opponents.

— peter hermann, Washington Post, "Pedestrian fatally struck by vehicle that didn’t stop in Northeast Washington," 7 May 2018
There’s nowhere to go but up from 10 losses — right?

— dan sweeney, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Armchair quarterbacks: How did the Dolphins do in the draft?," 30 Apr. 2018
Like a lot of out-of-nowhere box office hits, some of the revenue went up in smoke.

— gary thompson, Philly.com, "Tommy Chong: 'The whole reason for making marijuana illegal was to prosecute black and brown people'," 5 Apr. 2018
USA TODAY Sports Case Keenum, who is coming off a magical, out-of-nowhere season with the Minnesota Vikings, is about to become the Denver Broncos’ new quarterback.

— mike klis, USA TODAY, "Case Keenum to sign with Broncos when free agency opens," 13 Mar. 2018
Zuckerberg and Sandberg, on the other hand, were at first nowhere to be found, dispatching instead their vice president and deputy general counsel to address employees after days of public outrage.

— jeffrey sonnenfeld, Fortune, "Commentary: 5 Questions Facebook’s Leaders Still Need to Face," 23 Mar. 2018
There was nowhere to go but up from there, but things didn't get much better.

— joseph goodman, AL.com, "Alabama will be better without Collin Sexton," 17 Mar. 2018
His Stanhope is a study in coiled energy with nowhere to go.

— joe morgenstern, WSJ, "‘Journey’s End’ Review: A Small Beauty About the Great War," 15 Mar. 2018

First Known Use of nowhere

15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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nowhere Synonyms

nowhere

adjective

Definition of nowhere

: of or relating to a remote or relatively unknown location

a nowhere town

Recent Examples of nowhere from the Web

The red state-blue state banter that happens almost nowhere else in the country.

— david scharfenberg, BostonGlobe.com, "The US military: The greatest social engineering machine ever built," 9 June 2018
By the second half of the 19th century, public rodeo spectacles were popping up in nowhere towns like Deer Trail, Colorado, Pecos, Texas, and Prescott, Arizona.

— melissa lyttle, Smithsonian, "The First Family of Rodeo," 13 Dec. 2017
Lucy Dacus was an out-of-nowhere success story of 2016.

— Philly.com, "Pink, Philadelphia Furniture Show, Food Truck Popup, Booze & Vinyl party and more great Philadelphia events," 12 Apr. 2018
The Flyers were outplayed, outshot, and outworked in the first period — against a going-nowhere team that had lost 10 straight — and fortunate to be in a scoreless tie after 20 minutes.

— sam carchidi, Philly.com, "Flyers must end poor starts if they hope to make the playoffs," 21 Mar. 2018
Cincinnati took an awkward drive to a nowhere layup.

— chuck culpepper, chicagotribune.com, "Nevada is the unkillable zombie of the NCAA tournament's haunted graveyard region," 18 Mar. 2018
The going-nowhere Senators, who are 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference, appeared to tie the score at 2-2 when Zack Smith deposited a rebound with 7:44 left in the second.

— sam carchidi, Philly.com, "Soaring Flyers move into first-place tie (temporarily) as they whip Ottawa," 24 Feb. 2018
My drink is warm, my attitude is cold and my friend is literally nowhere to be found.

— laura delarato /, NBC News, "I stopped saying 'yes' to everyone, and it changed my life," 21 Feb. 2018
But there’s nothing wrong with hope and optimism, especially here. Especially after seven long years of going-nowhere offenses and a perpetually-spinning QB turnstile.

— ryan young, ajc, "Dan Mullen scores first major win of Florida tenure with recruiting coup of QB Emory Jones," 20 Dec. 2017

First Known Use of nowhere

1889

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

NOWHERE Defined for English Language Learners

nowhere

adverb

Definition of nowhere for English Language Learners

: not in or at any place

nowhere

noun

Definition of nowhere for English Language Learners

: no place

NOWHERE Defined for Kids

nowhere

adverb no·where \ ˈnō-ˌhwer , -ˌwer \

Definition of nowhere for Students

1 : not in or at any place

The book is nowhere to be found.

2 : to no place

We've gone nowhere all week.

3 : not at all

That's nowhere near enough.

nowhere

noun

Definition of nowhere for Students

: a place that does not exist

The sound seems to be coming from nowhere.

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