naught
part of speech
noun (naught — uncountable); pronoun (old-fashioned)
meaning for a pupil
1) (old-fashioned, literary) Nothing. tree →
2) (mainly US) Zero, the number 0 (UK and others usually write "nought"). tree →
3) A good-for-naught is a lazy or useless person who never does anything good. tree →
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 →
- The knight's quest was all for naught. tree →
- "It is naught but a bad dream," said the wizard. tree →
- Their plans came to naught. tree →
- Without water, the seeds will grow to naught. tree →
- He cared naught for gold. tree →
- The final score was two to naught. (US) tree →
- “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 →
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, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.