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"If you know aught which does behove my knowledge / Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not / In ignorant concealment," Polixenes begs Camillo in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, employing the "anything" sense of aught. Shakespeare didn't coin the pronoun aught, which has been a part of the English language since before the 12th century, but he did put it to frequent use. Writers today may be less likely to use aught than were their literary predecessors, but the pronoun does continue to turn up occasionally. Aught can also be a noun meaning "zero," and "the aughts" is heard occasionally for the decade at the beginning of a century (say, 1900-1909 or 2000-2009) in which the penultimate digit is a zero.
Synonyms of aught
Examples of aught in a Sentence
Anna Earl, Parents, 8 Feb. 2026
With a biting script by Tina Fey, the film fearlessly explores the dark side of the early aughts adolescent social scene.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Feb. 2026
The activist was photographed in a quirky outfit that was full of early-aughts trends.
—Christina Perrier, InStyle, 5 Feb. 2026
Early-aughts nostalgia plays a part—and the under-25 customer doesn’t carry that era’s body-shaming PTSD.
—Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 4 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for aught
Cite this Entry
“Aught.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aught. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
aught
1 of 2 pronoun
aught
2 of 2 nounPronoun
Old English āwiht "anything," from ā "ever, always" and wiht "creature, thing"
Noun
from naught "zero," from mistaking a naught for an aught
