Doesn't
verbContraction of 'does not', used to deny or negate an action with a third-person singular subject.
How to spell doesn't
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce doesn't
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does doesn't mean?
- verbContraction of 'does not', used to deny or negate an action with a third-person singular subject.
Doesn't in a sentence
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The printer doesn't work unless you restart it first.
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She doesn't usually answer calls during meetings.
Where does doesn't come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a contraction of 'does not', a phrase whose pieces are among the oldest in English. 'Does' is the third-person singular form of the verb 'do', which descends from Old English 'don', meaning to perform, make, or put, a word shared across the Germanic family. 'Not' comes from Old English 'nawiht', literally 'no thing' or 'nothing at all', which wore down over the centuries to the short word we use today. Contractions like this one became common in writing from the seventeenth century onward, with the apostrophe standing in for the vanished letter 'o' of 'not'. The spelling trap is purely that apostrophe: the base stays 'does', so the contraction is 'does' + 'n't', never 'dose' or 'dosen't', a confusion that arises because the word is pronounced with a 'z' sound that has nothing to do with its actual letters.
How the word is built
- does (third-person singular of the verb 'do')
- n't (reduced contraction of 'not', marked by the apostrophe)
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