Naughty

How to spell naughty

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce naughty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does naughty mean?

1. adjectiveBehaving badly or disobediently, especially in a playful or mischievous way.

Naughty in a sentence

• The naughty puppy chewed through two pairs of shoes before lunch.

• Their naughty son hid his sister's homework as a prank.

Where does naughty come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Naughty traces back to the Old English word 'naht' (also written 'nawiht'), which literally meant 'nothing' and was formed from 'ne' (not), 'a' (ever), and 'wiht' (thing or creature). This is the same root that gives us the archaic word 'naught', meaning zero or nothing at all. In the late 1300s a person described as naughty was said to 'have naught', that is to be poor or to possess nothing, and from there the sense slid toward moral worthlessness, so that for centuries naughty meant genuinely wicked or evil. Only later, by the 1600s, did the meaning soften into the milder modern senses of mischievous, badly behaved, or mildly indecent. The silent 'gh' that bedevils the spelling is a fossil of that old 'ht' cluster, once actually pronounced, that English has kept on the page long after the sound itself fell away.

How the word is built

• naught (nothing, evil)
• -y (adjective-forming suffix)