aughts

English

Alternative forms

• oughts

Etymology

From the sense of aught to refer to the number zero.

Pronunciation

• (UK, New Zealand, General Australian) IPA^(key): /oːts/
• (Canada, New England) IPA^(key): /ɒts/
• IPA^(key): (US) /ɔts/, (cot–caught merger) /ɑts/
• Rhymes: -ɒːts, -ɔːts, -ɑːts

Noun

aughts pl (plural only)

1. The first decade of a century, such as 1900 to 1909 or 2000 to 2009, whose digit in the tens place is zero; the noughties.
   • 2010, Michael G. Cunningham, “The 20th Century’s Aughts and Teens: OPERETTA”, in Gilded Songs (Berlin to Bacharach): The Gig Instrumentalist’s Guide to the Golden Era of American Popular Song (1920 to 1979):

     The 20th Century’s Aughts and Teens: OPERETTA [chapter title]

   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 August 2020:

     When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single “Boyfriend” was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber’s Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.

Derived terms

• mid-aughts
• late-aughts

Translations

first decade — see noughties

See also

decades in English (edit)

Adjective

aughts (not comparable)

1. From or evoking the first through tenth years of a century (chiefly the 2000s).

   Dialup internet is so aughts.

   • 2017 March 22, Tanya Basu, “Scientists figured out a big mystery about smell”, in Inverse‎^[2], retrieved June 14, 2021:

     Meyer and his team collected the participants in a very aughts way — through Craigslist.

   • 2020 October 19, Steff Yotka, “Dion Lee: Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear”, in Vogue‎^[3], retrieved June 14, 2021:

     He's testing out new experiments with knotting and macramé too, tying up dresses and trousers for a look that feels very aughts—and very now.

Anagrams

• ghauts, saught