nobody

See also: no body

English

Alternative forms

• no body (obsolete)
• nobuddy, nobudy (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English nobody, no-body, no body. By surface analysis, no (“none, not any”, adjective) +‎ body (“one, person, individual”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnəʊ.bə.di/, /ˈnəʊ.bɒd.i/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (UK):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnoʊ.bə.di/, /ˈnoʊˌbʌd.i/, /ˈnoʊ.bɑ.di/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Pronoun

nobody

1. Not any person; the logical negation of somebody.

   I asked several people, but nobody knew how.

   As nobody who is not blind can have failed to notice, I had my hair cut just yesterday.

   Nobody phoned, did they?

Usage notes

• Nobody has a lower degree of formality than no one, but is still standard and is unremarkable in more formal contexts.
• See more at no one

Synonyms

• no one, small fry, small potatoes

Antonyms

• anybody, anyone
• everybody, everyone
• somebody, someone

Derived terms

• it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
• like it's nobody's business
• like nobody else
• like nobody's business
• like nobody's watching
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American people
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American public
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people
• nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public
• nobody's fool
• nobody's perfect
• on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog
• the lights are on but nobody's home

Related terms

• anybody
• everybody
• nofuckingbody
• nothing
• nowhere
• somebody

Translations

not any person; the logical negation of somebody — see no one

Noun

nobody (plural nobodies)

1. Someone who is not important or well-known.
   • 1835, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XXVII, in Villette‎^[1]:

     “‘The nobody you once thought me!’ I repeated, and my face grew a little hot; but I would not be angry: of what importance was a school-girl’s crude use of the terms nobody and somebody?”

2. Something that has no body or an especially small one.

Derived terms

• nobody crab, no-body crab (Pycnogonida spp.)

Related terms

• nonentity

Translations

unimportant person

• Bulgarian: нищожество (bg) n (ništožestvo)
• Catalan: ningú (ca) m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無名小輩 / 无名小辈 (wúmíng xiǎobèi)

• Czech: nýmand (cs) m
• Danish: nul (da) n
• Dutch: niemand (nl), schertsfiguur (nl) m or f, nul (nl) m
• Finnish: tuntematon (fi)
• French: quidam (fr) m, moins-que-rien (fr) m (often offensive), nullité (fr) f (derogatory), sous-merde (fr) f (offensive, vulgar), nul (fr) m (derogatory), zéro (fr) m (derogatory)
• Galician: ninguén (gl)
• German: Niemand (de) m
• Greek: πουθενάς m (pouthenás), τιποτένιος (el) m (tipoténios), ασήμαντος (el) m (asímantos)
• Hungarian: senki (hu), nímand (hu)
• Irish: neamhdhuine m
• Italian: nessuno (it) m, nullità (it) f, zero assoluto (it), uomo da niente m
• Latin: terrae filius m
• Maori: kurumetometo, roromore, ware (mi), mōri
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: null (no) n or m

  Nynorsk: null n or m

• Portuguese: joão-ninguém (pt) m, zé-ninguém (pt) m, ninguém (pt) m, nulidade (pt) f
• Romanian: nimeni (ro), nulitate (ro) f, zero (ro) n
• Russian: ничто́жество (ru) n (ničtóžestvo)
• Serbo-Croatian: нико и ништа m (niko i ništa), нико m (niko)
• Slovak: niktoš m
• Spanish: don nadie (es) m, pelagatos (es) m or f, andoba (es), el último mono, cero absoluto (es) m
• Swedish: ingen (sv) c, nolla (sv) c

References

• “nobody”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.