not've
UK/ˈnɒtəv/US/ˈnɑtəv/
not've is the contraction of not.
Meaning 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?
- To no degree.
- That is not red; it's green.
- 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)
- 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!
- 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.
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
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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “not've.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/not%27ve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
