Net

How to spell net

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce net

What does net mean?

1. nounAn open fabric of knotted or woven cord, string, or wire used to catch, hold, or separate things.
2. adjectiveRemaining after all deductions such as tax, costs, or discounts have been subtracted.
3. verbTo catch something in a net, or to gain a particular amount after deductions.

Net in a sentence

• noun

  The goalkeeper watched the ball strike the back of the net.

• adjective

  After tax and pension contributions, her net pay was much lower than the headline salary.

• verb

  The crew hoped to net several tonnes of fish before the storm arrived.

• noun

  She scooped the goldfish out of the tank with a small net.

• adjective

  The company reported a healthy net profit for the third quarter.

• verb

  The sale should net them a tidy sum once the fees are paid.

Where does net come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English net, sometimes written nett, meaning a mesh of knotted thread or cord used for catching fish, birds, or game. It belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close relatives in Dutch net and German Netz, all tracing back to a prehistoric Germanic root meaning something knotted or twisted together. The sense stayed remarkably stable for the physical object, while figurative uses such as a safety net or a network grew up around it over the centuries. The quite separate financial meaning, a sum remaining after deductions, arrived much later through Old French and Italian netto, meaning clean or clear, ultimately from Latin nitidus, meaning shining or neat; this is the same source that gives us neat. Because two unrelated origins ended up spelled identically, the short, tidy word net carries both the fishing mesh and the clear final amount.

How the word is built

• net (single root; from Old English net, a mesh of knotted cord)