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nil

noun

Simple meaning

Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nil
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnɪl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Nothing; zero.

  2. lawuscanada

    Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.

  3. sports

    A score of zero

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.

Used this way, nil is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • zilch , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
  • goose egg , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
  • nix , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • nothing

    A trivial remark especially in the term sweet nothings.

  • naught

    Nothing; something which does not exist.

  • zero

    The numeric symbol that represents the cardinal number zero.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: nothing

zilchInformalgoose eggInformalnaughtDatednixInformal

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.