From Middle English not, nat, variant of noght, naht ("not, nothing"), from Old English *nōht, nāht ("nought, nothing"), short for nōwiht, nāwiht ("nothing"), corresponding to ne ("not") + ōwiht, āwiht ("anything"), corresponding to ā ("ever, always") + wiht ("thing, creature").

Cognate with Scots nat, naucht ("not"), Saterland Frisian nit, Western Frisian net, Dutch niet, German nicht. Compare nought, naught and aught. More at no, wight, whit.

• (British)
  • IPA: /nɒt/, [nɔt], [nɒt], [nɒʔ(t)]
• (America)
  • IPA: /nɑt/, [nɑ̈ʔt̚]
• (Ireland)
  • IPA: [nɞʔt]
• (Australia)
  • IPA: /nɔt/

not (not comparable)

1. Negates the meaning of the modified verb.
   • 1973 November 17, Richard Milhous Nixon, Orlando press conference:

     People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.

   • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC ↗, section I, page 42 ↗:

     The sound of Abba singing ‘Dancing Queen’ had started up in a room the other side of the court. Adrian slammed the window shut.
     ‘That’ll teach you to throw things out of the window,’ said Gary.
     ‘It’ll teach me not to throw things out of the window.’

   • 1998 January 26, William Jefferson Clinton, White House press conference:

     I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

   • 2016, [https://web.archive.org/web/20171014193917/https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lets-learn-english-lesson-6-where-is-the-gym/3225958.html VOA Learning English] (public domain)

     Oh, Pete. This is not the gym. — That’s right, Anna. This is the mailroom.

   Did you take out the trash? No, I did not.
   Not knowing any better, I went ahead.
2. To no degree.

   That is not red; it's green.

   It's not you, it's me.

3. (litotes) 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)

   It was not my favorite movie of all time. (meaning the speaker dislikes or strongly dislikes the movie)

   In the not too distant future my view on the matter might be not a million miles away from yours.

4. Used before a noun phrase or pronominal phrase to denote an aversion to its presence or occurrence.

   Oh god, not that! Anything but that!

5. (informal) Used before a determiner phrase or a non-finite clause (especially a gerund-participial clause) to convey some attitude (such as surprise, criticism or embarrassment) towards someone or something, without conveying negation. [attested since the late 2000s, popularized around 2020]

   Not me writing example sentences again! (≈Oh my, there I go writing example sentences again!)

• ain't
• aren't
• can't
• cannot
• daren't
• doesn't
• don't
• didn't
• forget-me-not
• hadn't
• hasn't
• have-not
• haven't
• isn't
• mightn't
• needn't
• neither
• no
• nor
• not bad
• not guilty
• not quite
• not think
• notwithstanding
• shan't
• shouldn't
• wasn't
• won't
• wouldn't

• French: ne ... pas, pas, ne (see entries for usage)
• German: nicht
• Italian: non, (colloquial) mica
• Portuguese: não
• Russian: не
• Spanish: no

1. And not.

   I wanted a plate of shrimp, not a bucket of chicken.

   He painted the car blue and black, not solid purple.

• French: pas, non
• German: nicht
• Italian: non
• Portuguese: não
• Russian: а не
• Spanish: no

1. (slang) Used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically. [chiefly 1990s]

   I really like hanging out with my little brother watching Barney … not!

   Sure, you’re perfect the way you are … not!

   • 1911 March, Zane Grey, “Out on the Field”, in The Young Pitcher, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC ↗, page 64 ↗:

     You've got a swell chance to make this [baseball] team, you have, not! Third base is my job, Freshie. Why, you tow-head, you couldn't play marbles. You butter-finger, can't you stop anything?

• bender, I don't think

• French: ou pas
• Portuguese: só que não

not (plural nots)

1. (Egyptian god) Alternative spelling of Nut.

not (plural nots)

1. (mathematics, logic) A unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true.

• ¬
• !
• ~
• ˈ

• French: NON
• German: Nicht