Word.ws English Dictionary

no-no

no-no noun: something that is forbidden, prohibited, discouraged or taboo.

Noun

no-no (plural no-nos or no-noes)

  1. (childish, colloquial, often) Something that is forbidden, prohibited, discouraged or taboo.
    • Smoking indoors is becoming a real no-no these days, in many places.
    • Mr. UDALL. Madam Chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bingham), is wrong in his supposition that the use of a picture is to be prohibited on a newsletter. Let me make some legislative history. The masthead or the heading of a newsletter with a picture of the Member is intended to be approved....1973, Franking Privilege for Members of Congress: Public Law 93-191 (Effective December 18, 1973): A Compilation of Legislative History, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 63
  2. (colloquial) A no-hitter; a game in which no batter on one of the teams got a hit.
    • He threw two no-nos in his career.

Examples of no-no in a sentence

  • To do otherwise would be to commit a no-no.1975, William Nesmith, Congratulations, Graduate!, Thomas Nelson, Inc., →ISBN, page 62:
  • Countless issues arise in family life every day, from the litany of no-noes showered on the toddler, to calling the preschooler in for his lunch.1975, James H. Ryan, Pablum, Parents & Pandemonium: Glimpses of a Pediatrician’s World, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, →ISBN...

Antonyms of no-no

Forms of no-no

pluralno-nos
pluralno-noes
alternative formno no

Phrases with no-no

Words that rhyme with no-no

Questions about no-no

What does no-no mean?
No-no means something that is forbidden, prohibited, discouraged or taboo.
How do you use no-no in a sentence?
To do otherwise would be to commit a no-no.
What part of speech is no-no?
No-no is a noun.
What is the plural of no-no?
The plural of no-no is no-nos.

Words near no-no in the dictionary

  1. no-marking
  2. no-marks
  3. No-Mates
  4. no-name
  5. no-names
  6. no-no
  7. no-no boy
  8. no-no boys
  9. no-no spot
  10. no-no spots
  11. no-no square

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no-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-us-no-no.ogg.

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