The meaning of NAUGHT is nothing. How to use naught in a sentence. come to naught, to come to nothing; be without result or fruition; fail.

Understanding the Context

set at naught, to regard or treat as of no importance; disdain. He entered a milieu that set his ideals at naught. (Definition of naught from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press) Nothing: All their work was for naught. 1.

Key Insights

Nonexistent. 2. Insignificant. [Middle English, from Old English nāwiht : nā, no; see ne in Indo-European roots + wiht, thing; see wekti- in Indo-European roots.] American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Final Thoughts

Noun naught (countable and uncountable, plural naughts) (archaic) Nothingness. (chiefly US, dated) Alternative spelling of nought. Definition of naught noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. Naught and nought are two such words. They are actually spelling variants of the same pronoun, which is several centuries old.

Any time you have an archaic word, you should ask yourself if there is a newer, simpler word that you could use instead. Both "naught" and "nought" are correct and old-fashioned, rarely used nowadays in English. But while "naught" is mainly used in the US, "nought" is the spelling preferred in the UK.