Word.ws English Dictionary

neither

Syllables: nei·therUK/ˈnaɪ.ðə//ˈnaɪ.ðɚ/

neither determiner: not one of two; not either; not one or the other.

Determiner

neither

  1. Not one of two; not either; not one or the other.
    • Neither definition seems correct.
    • with the help of neither you nor either of our sons.

Conjunction (1)

neither

  1. Not either (used with nor).
    • Neither you nor I likes it.
    • For most people, this sacrifice is made easily and instinctively. Not so for otroverts, who are neither willing nor able to passively adopt the social scripts that others do. To the otrovert, who is constantly engaged with the choices and consequences of their individual life, social norms follow a...2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think

Pronoun

neither

  1. Not either one of two.
    • I’ve tried on both shirts, but neither fits properly.
    • Her words of advice will help neither of us.

Adverb

neither (not comparable)

  1. Similarly not.
    • Just as you would not correct it, neither would I.
    • Neither can she stop him, nor can he stop her.

Conjunction (2)

neither

  1. (archaic) Nor.
    • But here thou canst not handle aught, neither make the folk ware of thee, not though thou shout thy throat hoarse.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 1

neither meaning in Hindi, Arabic, Persian and Vietnamese

neither in Hindi

not either one
भी नहीं bhī nahī̃

neither in Arabic

not either (used with nor): neither X nor Y
لَا X وَلَا lā X walā X
not either one
أَحَد لَا ʔaḥad lā
similarly not
وَلَا walā

neither in Persian

not one of two; not either
هیچیک hičyek, هیچکدام hīčkodām
not either (used with nor): neither X nor Y
نه na

neither in Vietnamese

not either (used with nor): neither X nor Y
không X cũng không X

Examples of neither in a sentence

  • Corpses surfaced near Portsmouth - was one of them Buster Crabb? Or were neither of them?
  • Neither now, nor ever will he forsake his mother.
  • You won't find it hot, but neither will you be freezing cold.
  • She was neither learned nor intelligent, but she contrived to dress both herself and her daughter out of a meagre jointure, supplying with her clever fingers what her purse could not buy;[…].1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
  • Not so for otroverts, who are neither willing nor able to passively adopt the social scripts that others do.2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think:

All 40 example sentences with neither

Origin of neither

Alteration (after either) of nauther, from Middle English neiþer, from Old English nāwþer, contraction of nāhwæþer, corresponding to no + whether. Compare Latin neuter (“neither”). By surface analysis, not + either.

Words formed from neither

Phrases with neither

Words that rhyme with neither

Questions about neither

What does neither mean?
Neither means not one of two; not either; not one or the other.
What is neither in Hindi?
Neither in Hindi is भी नहीं (bhī nahī̃). See Neither meaning in Hindi.
How do you use neither in a sentence?
Corpses surfaced near Portsmouth - was one of them Buster Crabb? Or were neither of them?
What part of speech is neither?
Neither can be a determiner, a conjunction, a pronoun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce neither?
Neither is pronounced /ˈnaɪ.ðə/ (UK).

Words near neither in the dictionary

  1. Neisses
  2. neist
  3. Neiswender
  4. Neiswenders
  5. Neith
  6. neither
  7. neither a borrower nor a lender be
  8. neither employed nor retired
  9. neither fish nor flesh
  10. neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring
  11. neither fish nor fowl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neither (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-neither.ogg, En-au-neither.ogg.

Cite this entry: “neither.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neither. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.