Noun: no
| Singular | no |
| Plural | noes; nos |
Sample Sentences
-
Q: I'll answer any ten questions that call for a yes or a no. [1994, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, “All Good Things...”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episodes 25-26, John de Lancie (actor):]
-
The workers voted on whether to strike, and there were thirty yeses and two nos.
Nouns inflected like no
deuteroconch,
borshch,
bortsch,
hypervolcano,
mud volcano,
Milton mango,
bulk cargo,
FIZ,
DES,
DEX,
yellow-fever mosquito,
BMS,
BBS,
Kölsch,
CMS,
Negro,
nonzero,
cryptobranch,
active volcano,
winnebago, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English no, na, from Old English nā, nō (“no, not, not ever, never”), from Proto-West Germanic *naiwō, from Proto-Germanic *naiwô (“never”), from *ne (“not”) + *aiwō (“ever”), equivalent to ne + aye. Cognate with Scots na (“no”), Saterland Frisian noa (“no”), West Frisian né (“no”), nea (“never”), Dutch nee (“no”), Low German nee (“no”), German nie (“never”), dialectal German nö (“no”), Danish nej (“no”), Swedish nej (“no”), Icelandic nei (“no”). Doublet of nay. See: Danish Nouns '
nej', Swedish Nouns '
nej', Icelandic Nouns '
nei'.