New

How to spell new

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce new

What does new mean?

1. adjectiveRecently made, acquired, or come into existence; not old or previously known.

New in a sentence

• She bought a new car after years of saving.

• The company hired three new staff members this month.

Where does new come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English niwe or neowe, meaning 'fresh', 'recent', or 'not existing before', and it traces back through the shared Germanic ancestor that also gave German neu and Dutch nieuw. The deeper root is the Proto-Indo-European newo, the same ancient stem that underlies Latin novus and Greek neos, both meaning 'new', which is why English borrowings such as 'novel', 'renovate', and 'neon' feel like distant cousins. The word has been continuously in use since the earliest written English, changing very little in meaning over more than a thousand years. The main spelling trap is purely auditory: 'new' sounds exactly like 'knew' (the past tense of 'know') and like 'gnu' (the antelope), so the ear gives no help and the writer must remember the plain n-e-w form. The simple, suffix-free spelling is a clue to its age, since it never needed to be dressed up with Latin or French endings.

How the word is built

• new (a single Old English root meaning fresh or recent; no prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like new

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• knew: Past tense of 'know': had knowledge of, or was acquainted with, something or someone.