Word.ws English Dictionary

nayward

nayward noun: a state of denial, disbelief; the negative side.

Noun

nayward (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A state of denial, disbelief; the negative side.
    • And I'll be sworn you would believe my saying,
      Howe'er you lean to th' nayward.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Origin of nayward

From nay + -ward.

Questions about nayward

What does nayward mean?
Nayward means a state of denial, disbelief; the negative side.
What part of speech is nayward?
Nayward is a noun.

Words near nayward in the dictionary

  1. naysayers
  2. naysaying
  3. naysayings
  4. naysays
  5. Naysmith
  6. nayward
  7. nayword
  8. naywords
  9. Nayyar
  10. Nayyars
  11. Nazaire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nayward (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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