Word.ws English Dictionary

better than nothing

better than nothing adjective: barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all.

Adjective

better than nothing (comparative form only)

  1. (comparative-only) Barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all.

Synonyms of better than nothing

Questions about better than nothing

What does better than nothing mean?
Better than nothing means barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all.
What part of speech is better than nothing?
Better than nothing is an adjective.

Words near better than nothing in the dictionary

  1. better than a poke in the eye
  2. better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick
  3. better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
  4. better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
  5. better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick
  6. better than nothing
  7. better than sex
  8. better the devil you know
  9. better the devil you know than the devil you don't
  10. better the devil you know than the devil you don't know
  11. better the devil you know than the one you don't

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: better than nothing (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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