Word.ws English Dictionary

ne'er

/ˈnɛʔə//ˈnɛʔɚ/

ne'er is the contraction of never.

Meaning of never

Adverb

never (not comparable)

  1. At no time; on no occasion; in no circumstance.
    • I finally finished, and I never do wanna do it again.
  2. Not at any other time; not on any other occasion; not previously.
    • There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewel: I mean your love.1601 November 30, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I's Farewell Speech
  3. (colloquial) Negative particle (used to negate verbs in the simple past tense; also used absolutely).
    • The police say I stole the car, but I never did it.

See all 5 meanings of never

Forms of ne'er

alternative formne're

Origin of ne'er

Contraction of never.

Words formed from ne'er

Phrases with ne'er

Questions about ne'er

What is ne'er the contraction of?
Ne'er is the contraction of never.
How do you pronounce ne'er?
Ne'er is pronounced /ˈnɛʔə/ (UK).

Words near ne'er in the dictionary

  1. ne bis in idem
  2. ne exeat
  3. ne exeats
  4. ne plus ultra
  5. ne plus ultras
  6. ne'er
  7. ne'er cast a clout till May be out
  8. ne'er-do-well
  9. ne'er-do-wells
  10. ne'ertheless
  11. ne'ery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ne'er (page history and authors); never (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ne'er.wav, En-us-ne'er.oga.

Cite this entry: “ne'er.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ne%27er. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.