Didn't

How to spell didn't

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce didn't

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does didn't mean?

1. verbThe contracted form of 'did not', used to negate an action in the past.

Didn't in a sentence

• She didn't receive the invoice until the following week.

• The parcel didn't arrive on the promised date.

Where does didn't come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of 'did not', joining two very old native English words. 'Did' is the past tense of the verb 'do', which traces back to the Old English 'don', meaning 'to do, make, or act'; its past form appeared as 'dyde'. 'Not' developed from the Old English 'nawiht', literally 'no thing' or 'nothing at all', which wore down over centuries into the brisk negator we use today. The fused, apostrophe-marked spelling became common in writing from the seventeenth century onward as contractions like 'don't', 'can't', and 'isn't' settled into everyday print. The apostrophe stands in for the missing 'o' of 'not', which is the single detail people most often get wrong, dropping it entirely or sliding it into the wrong gap, as in the non-standard 'did'nt'.

How the word is built

• did (past tense of 'do')
• n't (contracted form of 'not')