Word.ws English Dictionary

nothing ventured, nothing gained

nothing ventured, nothing gained proverb: if one takes no risks, one cannot gain (i.e., has no hope of gaining) any benefits.

Proverb

nothing ventured, nothing gained

  1. If one takes no risks, one cannot gain (i.e., has no hope of gaining) any benefits.
    • Near-synonyms: no guts, no glory; no pain, no gain
    • Noght vēter noght haue spare to speke spare to spede1546, John Heywood, A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tongue compacte in a matter concernyng two maner of mariages, The fyrste parte. The leuenth chapiter

Synonyms of nothing ventured, nothing gained

Origin of nothing ventured, nothing gained

Attested since 1546 in a book of English proverbs by John Heywood (see quotation below). Perhaps translated from or influenced by French Qui onques rien n'enprist riens n'achieva (“One who never undertook anything never gained anything”). Though a translation, a similar phrase of "Nothing ventured, nothing have." appears in Sir George Dasent's translation of the Icelandic text "The Saga of the Burnt Njal" (events occurring between 960 and 1020 A.D.), suggesting it may have gone back much further. However, certain translations of Herodotus 7.9 include "if nothing is ventured in life, then nothing is gained". Suggesting either the phrase or something similar stretches to even before 960AD.

Questions about nothing ventured, nothing gained

What does nothing ventured, nothing gained mean?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained means if one takes no risks, one cannot gain (i.e., has no hope of gaining) any benefits.
What part of speech is nothing ventured, nothing gained?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a proverb.

Words near nothing ventured, nothing gained in the dictionary

  1. nothing to see
  2. nothing to see here
  3. nothing to sneeze at
  4. nothing to sniff at
  5. nothing to write home about
  6. nothing ventured, nothing gained
  7. nothing-burger
  8. nothing-burgers
  9. nothing-butteries
  10. nothing-buttery
  11. nothing-up-my-sleeve number

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nothing ventured, nothing gained (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-nothing ventured, nothing gained.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nothing_ventured%2C_nothing_gained. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.