Word.ws English Dictionary

/dev/null

/dev/null proper noun: a device file, present in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, that discards all data written to it and yields no output, always presenting as an empty file when read.

Proper noun

/dev/null

  1. A device file, present in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, that discards all data written to it and yields no output, always presenting as an empty file when read.
    • It's possible to suppress the compiler's warnings by redirecting standard error to /dev/null.
    • To avoid problems when running the script, the output of man man was sent to /dev/null instead of sending it to a real terminal. This has the effect of discarding the already formatted text of the retrieved page.1980 October, Luis F. Cabrera, “A Performance Evaluation Study of UNIX”, in Harold Joseph Highland, editor, Computer Performance Evaluation Users Group 16th Meeting (National Bureau of Standards...
  2. (Internet, figuratively) Nowhere; often suggests an intent to ignore specific correspondence.
    • Thoughtful discussion and criticism is welcomed, but please send all flames to dev null.1992 September 17, Douglas Meier <dmeier@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>, “Welfare Reform Idea”, in talk.politics.misc (Usenet), message-ID <1992Sep17.064757.551@news.acns.nwu.edu>
    • suddenly the RLP calls form atlanta apparently go to dev null.1993 December 18, Carmien Stefan <carmien@alumni.cs.Colorado.EDU>, “RLP hosed”, in alt.unix.wizards (Usenet), message-ID <CI7Gt6.DAo@Colorado.EDU>

Forms of /dev/null

alternative formdev null
alternative formdev-null
alternative formdevnull

Origin of /dev/null

From Unix operating systems, where /dev (the Unix directory containing device files) contains a null entry representing no device.

Questions about /dev/null

What does /dev/null mean?
/dev/null means a device file, present in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, that discards all data written to it and yields no output, always presenting as an empty file when read.
What part of speech is /dev/null?
/dev/null is a proper noun.

Words near /dev/null in the dictionary

  1. /b/ros
  2. /b/tard
  3. /b/tards
  4. /d/egenerate
  5. /d/egenerates
  6. /dev/null
  7. /end rant
  8. /gen
  9. /genq
  10. /hj
  11. /ij

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: /dev/null (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “/dev/null.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/%2Fdev%2Fnull. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.