not

/nɒt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/nɔt/

not adverb: negates the meaning of the modified verb. Also the alternative letter-case form of NOT.

Adverb

not (not comparable)

Negates the meaning of the modified verb.
- Did you take out the trash? — No, I did not. I do not think it was my turn, was it?
- Not knowing any better, I went ahead.
To no degree.
- That is not red; it's green.
- It's not you, it's me.
Used to indicate the opposite or near opposite, often in a form of understatement.
- That day was not the best day of my life. (meaning the day was bad or awful)
- It was not my favorite movie of all time. (meaning the speaker dislikes or strongly dislikes the movie)
Used before a determiner phrase, a pronominal phrase etc. to convey a negative attitude (e.g. denial, sadness, anger) towards something.
- Oh god, not that! Anything but that!
- Not another rainy day!
(informal, ironic) Used before a non-finite clause (especially a gerund-participial clause) or less commonly a determiner phrase to ironically convey some attitude (e.g. surprise, incredulity, amusement, or embarrassment) towards something.
- Not me writing example sentences again.
- Not me crying by the end of that!! You are a brilliant, beautiful human who deserves no less than the world. Thank you for taking the time to watch unicorn store. It’s a film that means so much to me.2023 July 8, @brielarson [Brie Larson], Twitter

Conjunction

not

And not.
- I wanted a plate of shrimp, not a bucket of chicken.
- He painted the car blue and black, not solid purple.

Interjection

not!

(slang) Used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically.
- Near-synonyms: I don't think; psych; bender (obsolete, UK)
- I really like hanging out with my little brother watching Barney … not!
Synonyms:

I don't think, psych, bender

Noun (1)

not (plural nots)

An instance of using the word “not”; a negation or denial.
- The children are taught to be afraid of winter, of war, of death, of hard times, of disease, of examinations. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that children so seldom find the conversation of their elders uplifting. It is full of don’ts, buts and nots.1922 March 4, “Fed on Fear Too Much”, in The Pathfinder, volume 29, number 1470, Washington, D.C.: Pathfinder Publishing Company, page 33

Noun (2) capitalized: NOT

NOT (plural NOTs)

A unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true.
- Notice that the NOT symbol is simply a BUF symbol followed by a bubble. The bubble represents logical inversion and is the actual NOT gate. Anytime you see a bubble attached to a gate pin, you can detach it from the pin and insert a separate NOT gate in its place without affecting the resulting...2022 August 4, William Bahn, “Boolean Algebra Laws—Delving Into Boolean Identities”, in All About Circuits
Synonyms:

¬, !, ~, ˈ

Proper noun capitalized: Not

Not

(Egyptian, alternative) Alternative spelling of Nut.

Also used as

not is also the alternative letter-case form of NOT.

not meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

not in Hindi

negates meaning of another word: नहीं nahī̃, न na, मत

not in Tamil

negates meaning of another word: இல்லை illai

not in Marathi

negates meaning of another word: नाही nāhī

not in Urdu

negates meaning of another word: نہیں nahī̃, نہ na, مت

More languagesFewer languages

not in Bengali: না na
not in Telugu: కాదు kādu
not in Malayalam: ഇല്ല illa
not in Kannada: ಅಲ್ಲ alla
not in Punjabi: ਨਾ nā
not in Gujarati: નથી nathī
not in Sanskrit: न na
not in Assamese: নহয় nohoy, না na
not in Nepali: छैन chaina
not in Tagalog: hindi
not in Arabic: لَا lā, مَا mā, لَم lam, لَن lan
not in Malay: tidak, bukan, tak
not in Indonesian: tidak, tak, bukan
not in Persian: نه na
not in Thai: ไม่ mâi, ไม่ใช่ mâi-châi
not in Vietnamese: không, chẳng, chả
not in Myanmar: မ ... ဘူး ma. ... bhu:

Examples of not in a sentence

It was felt desirable that she not leave school before fourteen.
I'd rather MoM (did) not stay, cuz the best thing about a holiday is not working.
Not a day passes when I don't regret not having enrolled in medicine.
After not a few threats, they got what they’d been after for so long.
In the not too distant future my view on the matter might be not a million miles away from yours.
We can't run this bar without her. Not and raise two kids.

All 40 example sentences with not

Synonyms of not

Forms of not

Noun
plural	nots
plural	NOTs
Proper noun
alternative form	Nut
alternative form	Nunut
alternative form	Nenet
alternative form	Nuit

Origin of not

From Middle English not, nat, a variant of noght, naht (“not, nothing”), from Old English *nōht, nāht (“nought, nothing”), shortening of nōwiht, nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “not anything”), from Proto-West Germanic *naiwwiht, corresponding to ne (“not”) + ōwiht, āwiht (“anything”), corresponding to ā (“ever, always”) + wiht (“thing, creature”). Cognate with Scots nat, naucht (“not”), Saterland Frisian nit (“not”), West Frisian net (“not”), Dutch niet (“not”), German nicht (“not”). Compare nought, naught and aught. More at no, wight, whit.

Words formed from not

Phrases with not

181 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with not

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about not

What does not mean?: Not means negates the meaning of the modified verb.
What is not in Hindi?: Not in Hindi is नहीं (nahī̃), न (na), मत. See Not meaning in Hindi.
How do you use not in a sentence?: It was felt desirable that she not leave school before fourteen.
What part of speech is not?: Not can be an adverb, a conjunction, an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce not?: Not is pronounced /nɒt/ (UK).

Words near not in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: not (page history and authors); NOT (page history and authors); Not (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-not.ogg, en-us-not.ogg.

Cite this entry: “not.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/not. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.