Word.ws English Dictionary

not've

UK/ˈnɒtəv/US/ˈnɑtəv/

not've is the contraction of not.

Meaning of not

Adverb

not (not comparable)

  1. 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?
  2. To no degree.
    • That is not red; it's green.
  3. 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)
  4. 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!
  5. (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.

See all 9 meanings of not

Origin of not've

not + -'ve

Questions about not've

What is not've the contraction of?
Not've is the contraction of not.
How do you pronounce not've?
Not've is pronounced /ˈnɑtəv/ (US).

Words near not've in the dictionary

  1. not worth writing home about
  2. not wrapped too tight
  3. not yet
  4. not yets
  5. not your father's
  6. not've
  7. not-at-homeness
  8. Not-Deer
  9. not-dog
  10. not-dogs
  11. not-for-profit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not've (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.

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Cite this entry: “not've.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/not%27ve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.