Word Confusion: Knot vs Naught or Nought vs Not

Posted February 10, 2014 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
14 Jan 2023

Pinterest pin for Knot vs Naught or Nought vs Not

I rarely come across a word confusion of knot for not, however, writers are frequently confused over naught and nought versus not. I can only assume they believe it’s an old-timey version of this negative. It doesn’t help that the four are heterographs.

It’s nought to say that readers can not figure out what the author meant to write, but what’s the point of knotting them up and pulling them out of the story, which only leads to the story going for naught?

When the confusion does arise, it’s generally because someone is being pretentious; there really isn’t any reason to use naught or nought unless you’re writing an historical novel. And if you are, you OUGHT to know the difference! You would be quite naughty if you didn’t!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

If you found this post on “Knot vs Naught or Nought vs Not” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

Return to top

Knot	Naught Nought	Not
Constrictor Knot How To courtesy of Chris 73 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.	Noughts and Crosses by Thomas Nugent is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.	Age Warning Symbol by John Gustafsson is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — The red slash is a universal symbol for “not”.
Part of Grammar:
Noun ¹, ²; Verb ¹, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: knot, knots Gerund: knotting Third person present verb: knots Past tense or past participle: knotted Present participle: knotting	Adjective; Adverb; Noun; Pronoun Plural for the noun: naught, nought Naught and nought are variant spellings of each other.	Adverb
Noun: Fastening made by tying a piece of string, rope, or something similar ¹ Knob, protuberance, or node in a stem, branch, or root Unit of speed, equivalent to one nautical mile per hour Small, relatively short-billed sandpiper ² Verb, intransitive: [Of the stomach] Tighten as a result of nervousness or tension ¹ To become tied or tangled in a knot To form knots or joints Verb, transitive: Act of fastening with a knot ¹ Cause a muscle to become tense and hard To tie in a knot Form a knot in To secure or fasten by a knot To form protuberances, bosses, or knobs in Make knotty	Adjective: Lost Ruined [Archaic] Worthless Useless [Obsolete] Morally bad Wicked Adverb: [Obsolete] Not Noun: The digit “0” Zero Nothing Cipher Pronoun: Nothing	Used to express the negative of other words Used with a quantifier to exclude a person or part of a group Less than
Examples:
Noun: I have mastered a clove hitch knot and a slipknot. A little knot of people clustered in the doorway. Some days the vessel logged twelve knots. George and Paul tied the knot today! Verb, intransitive: My stomach knotted up just thinking about it. Your muscles are so knotted up. I felt my stomach knot with apprehension. Verb, transitive: I prefer to knot my scarf loosely. A troop of young boys were quickly knotting carpets. He knotted the bandanna around his neck.	Adjective: Ach, it’ll come to naught. Battle taught him that his ideals were naught. The knave was all naught. Adverb: He’s to have naught to do with ye, gel. Naught a’tall, a’tall, mate. It matters naught. Noun: Make it an even $1,000,000 by adding six noughts after that one. It was all for nought. You’ll come to nought, lad, if you keep that up. Pronoun: All his efforts will have been for naught. He’s naught but a worthless fool. He’ll bring his efforts to naught.	Do not keep in touch. He has been warned not to steal. Not all poems are serious. The brakes went on not ten feet from us.
Derivatives:
Adjective: knotless, knotlike Noun: knotter
History of the Word:
Old English cnotta is related to the Dutch knot. Late Middle English is of unknown origin.	Old English nāwiht or -wuht are from nā (no) + wiht (thing).	Middle English contraction of nought.

Return to top

C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

Return to top