Word.ws English Dictionary

not a word

not a word phrase: do not tell anyone; keep (something) a secret.

Phrase

not a word

  1. Do not tell anyone; keep (something) a secret.
    • Once when he was alone with the Englishman he took occasion to make it quite plain that his engagement to Miss Strong was to be announced immediately upon their return to America. “But not a word of it, my dear Tennington—not a word of it.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 111

Questions about not a word

What does not a word mean?
Not a word means do not tell anyone; keep (something) a secret.
What part of speech is not a word?
Not a word is a phrase.

Words near not a word in the dictionary

  1. not a one
  2. not a patch on
  3. not a pretty sight
  4. not a sausage
  5. not a soul
  6. not a word
  7. not a word of a lie
  8. not again
  9. not all heroes wear capes
  10. not anymore
  11. not as black as one is painted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not a word (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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