DictionaryAI

nobody

NOH-bud-ee/ˈnoʊˌbʌd.i/NOH-bod-ee/ˈnəʊ.bɒd.i/

Noun pluralnobodies

3 meanings of nobody

Practice

  1. 1
    no onepronoun
    Not any person; no one.

    Nobody on the committee was willing to take the blame.

    The room was locked, and nobody had a key.

    UsageTakes a singular verb (nobody knows), but later pronouns are usually they: Nobody phoned, did they?

    Similarno one, none

    Oppositeeverybody, everyone, somebody, someone

    Note

    The phrase that grew into a single word: Middle English wrote nobody, no-body and no body alike, simply no plus body in the old sense of 'person'.

    Nobody phoned, did they?

    Nobody knew how, and they said so.

  2. 2
    unknown personnouncountable
    A person who is not important or well-known.

    Like an extra in a film whose name never appears in the credits.

    He arrived in the city as a nobody and left it a household name.

    At those glittering parties, junior staff were treated as nobodies.

    UsageTakes a and a plural: a nobody, nobodies, often with complete or just: a complete nobody.

    Similarnonentity, unknown, cipher, lightweight

    Oppositesomebody, celebrity, star, VIP

    Note

    Its natural partner is a somebody: Charlotte Brontë's Villette sets the two side by side, as a schoolgirl's crude terms for who counts and who does not. Where the pronoun means no person at all, this noun means a person the world overlooks.

Less common meaning

  1. 3
    nounrare
    A thing that has no body, or one with an especially small body.

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Origin

From Middle English nobody (also no-body, no body). By its parts it is no ('none, not any') plus body, here meaning 'one, person, individual'.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts