Not

How to spell not

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce not

What does not mean?

1. adverbA word used to express negation, denial, refusal, or the absence of something.

Not in a sentence

• The office is not open on public holidays.

• She did not receive the invoice in time to pay it.

Where does not come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word descends from Old English nawiht, a compound meaning literally 'no thing' or 'nothing', formed from ne 'no, not' joined to wiht 'thing, creature'. Over centuries of everyday use this heavy word was steadily eroded in speech, passing through the medieval form 'naught' and then shrinking further to the small, unstressed 'not' we use today. The fuller cousin 'naught' (and 'nought' for the figure zero) still survives in English and shows where 'not' began. Because 'not' lost its initial sound while the word 'knot' kept a silent k, the two ended up sounding identical, which is the only real spelling trap here. The word has worked as the basic marker of negation since the earliest Middle English period, around the 1200s.

How the word is built

• not (a single Old English negative particle, a worn-down form of nawiht 'nothing')

Words that sound like not

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

• knot: A fastening made by tying or interlacing rope, string, or thread.