Word.ws English Dictionary

no

/nəʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Scotland/no/

no determiner: not any. Also the alternative form of No..

Determiner

no

  1. Not any.
    • no one
    • There is no water left.
    Antonyms:
    any, some, one, a few, a couple of, a handful of, multiple, various, many, numerous
  2. Hardly any.
    • We'll be finished in no time at all.
    • Fifty pounds for this is no money, really.
    Antonyms:
    quite, some
  3. Not any possibility or allowance of (something).
    • No smoking. No parking.
    • There's no stopping her once she gets going.
  4. Not (a); not properly, not really; not fully.
    • My mother's no fool.
    • Working nine to five every day is no life.

Adverb (1)

no (not comparable)

  1. Used before different, before comparatives with more and less, and idiomatically before other comparatives.
    • It is a less physical kind of torture, but no less gruesome.
    • I can think of no more deserving cause.
  2. (informal) Used idiomatically before certain other adjectives.
    • This thing is no good.
    • The teacher’s decision was no fair.
  3. (Scotland, informal) Not.
    • I just want to find out whether she's coming or no.
    • Can ye no help me?
  4. (colloquial, humorous, usually) Not, does not, do not, etc.
    • Ug no like veggie.

Particle

no

  1. Used to show disagreement, negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition.
    • No, you are mistaken.
    • No, you may not watch television now.
    Synonyms:
    nay, nope
    Antonyms:
    aye, maybe, yea, yes, affirmative, ahuh, ar, arr, ay, da
  2. Used to express sadness or disappointment.
    • "We lost." "No!"
  3. Used to express disbelief.
    • I got the job! / No! Really? That's fantastic!
    Synonyms:
    no way
  4. Used to show agreement with a negative question.
    • "Don’t you like milk?" "No." (i.e., "No, I don’t like milk.")
    Synonyms:
    nah, nay, nope
  5. (colloquial) Used together with an affirmative word or phrase to show agreement.
    • No, totally.
    • No, yeah, that's exactly right.

Preposition

no

  1. Without.
    • Look Ma, no hands!
  2. Like.

Noun (1)

no (plural noes or nos)

  1. A negating expression; an answer that shows disagreement, denial, refusal, or disapproval.
    • Q: I'll answer any ten questions that call for a yes or a no.1994, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, “All Good Things...”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episodes 25-26, John de Lancie (actor)
  2. A vote not in favor, or opposing a proposition.
    • The workers voted on whether to strike, and there were thirty yeses and two nos.

Verb

no (third-person singular simple present noes, present participle noing, simple past and past participle noed)

  1. (colloquial, intransitive) To say “no”.
    • She felt disquiet at these tales of Musa’s illicit activities. ‘Does your father know?’ / ‘My father always noes. He never yeses. Specially when he’s sick, then he noes all the time. I gotta get out. Can’t stick around the house with him yelling.[…]’1983, Sasha Moorsom, chapter 5, in In the Shadow of the Paradise Tree, London; Melbourne, Vic.; Henley-on-Thame, Oxfordshire: Routledge & Kegan Paul, →ISBN, page 80
    • “Heaven knows why a woman ‘Noes’!” / Clarrie nodded glumly. “And why she ‘Yesses’ in the end.”1994, Malcolm Ross, “Part Three: The New Woman”, in Kernow & Daughter, London: BCA, →ISBN, page 293
  2. (colloquial, transitive) To answer with “no”; to decline, reject.
    • Never accustom yourself to say ‘Yes,’—practise an emphatic and decisive enunciation of the far more dignified and important monosyllable, ‘No.’ […] Believe me, it is of the utmost importance (the advice is not of recent date) that you should No the world.1835 April, “The Whimsey Papers.—No. II. Vague Conclusions Concerning Selfishness and Benevolence—Vivid the Casuist—Skinflint the Misanthrope—Green, the Good-Natured Man.”, in [Caroline Norton]...
    • BUDGET DIRECTOR SMITH / The President yessed his report […] SENATOR McCARRAN / He noed the President’s report1940 March 17, “Back of the CAA Fight: Independence or Closer Executive Control of Aviation Agency”, in David Lawrence, editor, The United States News, Washington, D.C.: United States News Publishing...

Adverb (2) capitalized: No

No (not comparable)

  1. (alternative, archaic) Alternative form of No..

Noun (2) capitalized: No

No (plural Nos)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of No..

Noun (3) capitalized: No

No (countable and uncountable, plural No)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Noh: a form of classical Japanese drama.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: No

No

  1. A lake in South Sudan.
  2. A county of South Sudan.

Adjective capitalized: NO

NO

  1. (abbreviation, initialism, relays, and valves) Initialism of normally open.
    Antonyms:
    NC

Proper noun (2) capitalized: NO

NO

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Novus Ordo.

Also used as

no is also the alternative form of No..

no meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

no in Hindi

used to show disagreement or negation
नहीं nahī̃, जी नहीं jī nahī̃
a negating expression
नहीं nahī̃

no in Tamil

used to show an activity is forbidden
கூடாது kūṭātu
not any
இல்லை illai
not; not properly
அல்ல alla, இல்லை illai
used to show disagreement or negation
இல்லை illai, அல்ல alla

no in Marathi

used to show disagreement or negation
नाही nāhī
a negating expression
नाही nāhī

no in Urdu

used to show disagreement or negation
نہیں nahī̃, جی نہیں jī nahī̃, نہ na, نے ne, لا lā, نا nā
More languagesFewer languages
no in Bengali
না na, জি না ji na, জ্বী না jī na
no in Telugu
లేదు lēdu, లేవు lēvu, కాదు kādu
no in Malayalam
ഇല്ല illa, അല്ല alla
no in Kannada
ಇಲ್ಲ illa
no in Punjabi
ਨਹੀਂ nahī̃, نہیں nheṉ
no in Gujarati
ના nā, નથી nathī
no in Sanskrit
न कर्तव्यम् na kartavyam, नहि nahi
no in Sinhala
නැ næ
no in Assamese
নাই nai, নহয় nohoy, না na
no in Nepali
नाई nāī, हुन्न hunna, अहँ ahã
no in Pashto
نه na
no in Tagalog
bawal, hindi, wala
no in Arabic
مَمْنُوع mamnūʕ, لَا lā, نَعَم naʕam, لَاءَان lāʔān
no in Malay
dilarang, tidak, tiada, tak
no in Indonesian
bukan, tidak
no in Persian
ممنوع است memnu' ast, نه na
no in Thai
ไม่ mâi, ห้าม hâam, ไฮ้ hái, เปล่า bplàao
no in Vietnamese
cấm, không, ừ, phải
no in Myanmar
မဟုတ်ပါဘူး ma.hutpabhu:, ဟင့်အင်း hang.ang:, အဘယ်သူမျှမ a.bhaisuhmya.ma.
Sindhi
نه na

Examples of no in a sentence

  • No hot dogs were sold yesterday.
  • I've got no wife and no children either.
  • No two people are the same.
  • There was no score at the end of the first period. (The score was 0-0.)
  • No under-18s (allowed).
  • No geese have blue beaks.

All 40 example sentences with no

Synonyms of no

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of no

Forms of no

Noun
pluralnoes
pluralnos
pluralNos
pluralNo
Verb
third-person singular presentnoes
present participlenoing
past participlenoed
pastnoed

Plural of no: noes or nos

Origin of no

Inherited from Middle English no, noo, na, a reduced form of none, noon, nan (“none, not any”) used before consonants (compare a to an), from Old English nān (“none, not any”), from Proto-West Germanic *nain, from Proto-Germanic *nainaz (“not any”, literally “not one”), equivalent to ne (“not”) + a. Piecewise doublet of none. Cognate with Scots nae (“no, not any, none”), Old Frisian nān, nēn ("no, not any, none"; > Saterland Frisian naan, neen (“no, not any, none”), North Frisian nian (“no, not any, none”)), Old Dutch nēn ("no, not any, none"; > Dutch neen (“no”)), Old Norse neinn (“no, not any, none”). Compare also Old Saxon nigēn ("not any"; > Low German nen), Old Dutch nehēn (Middle Dutch negheen/negeen, Dutch geen), West Frisian gjin, Old High German nihein (> German kein). More at no, one.

Inherited from Middle English no, na, from Old English nā, nō (“no, not, not ever, never”), from Proto-West Germanic *naiwō, from Proto-Germanic *naiwô (“never”), from *ne (“not”) + *aiwō (“ever”), equivalent to ne + aye. Cognate with Scots na (“no”), Saterland Frisian noa (“no”), West Frisian né (“no”), nea (“never”), Dutch nee (“no”), Low German nee (“no”), German nie (“never”), dialectal German nö (“no”), Danish nej (“no”), Swedish nej (“no”), Icelandic nei (“no”). Doublet of nay.

Variant of No., from the scribal abbreviation for Latin (in) numerō (“in number, to the number of”).

Words formed from no

Phrases with no

178 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with no

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about no

What does no mean?
No means not any.
What is no in Hindi?
No in Hindi is नहीं (nahī̃), जी नहीं (jī nahī̃). See No meaning in Hindi.
How do you use no in a sentence?
No hot dogs were sold yesterday.
What part of speech is no?
No can be a determiner, an adverb, a particle or a preposition.
How do you pronounce no?
No is pronounced /nəʊ/ (UK).

Words near no in the dictionary

  1. NNTR
  2. NNTs
  3. NNUE
  4. NNUEs
  5. NNW
  6. no
  7. No 10
  8. No 11
  9. no and low
  10. no bail
  11. no ball

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no (page history and authors); No (page history and authors); NO (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-uk-no.ogg, en-us-no.ogg, en-nz-no.ogg.

Cite this entry: “no.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.