# nope

Pronunciation: say "NOHP" US/AUS /noʊp/, UK /nəʊp/

## Particle

1. An informal or casual way of saying no. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A relaxed, friendly way of saying no.
   - _Nope, that's not what I meant at all._
   - _She asked if I'd finished, and I told her nope._

## Noun

2. A negative reply; an informal way of answering no. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A spoken no that someone gives as an answer.
   - _His response to every plan was the same flat nope._
   - _I expected agreement, but all I got was a quiet nope._
3. Something intensely unpleasant (a situation or animal) that prompts instant rejection, with no thought of putting up with it. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Something so unpleasant that you reject it the moment you see it.
   - _A snake coiled on the porch step is an immediate nope._
   - _She decided the haunted-house tour was a hard nope._
4. A blow to the head. *(dialectal, East Midlands, Northern England)*
   - Simple: A hit on someone's head.
   - _A single nope to the temple left him dazed for a moment._
   - _He delivered a sharp nope that ended the brawl at once._

## Noun

5. A bullfinch, a small songbird of the finch family. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A bullfinch, a small songbird.
   - _A nope whistled softly from the hawthorn hedge at dawn._
   - _The gardener spotted a nope among the apple blossoms._

## Verb

6. To strike someone on the head. *(archaic, East Midlands, Northern England)*
   - Simple: To hit someone on the head.
   - _The bargeman swore he would nope the next man who insulted him._
   - _She noped him soundly with the back of her hand._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3** — This represents "no" pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end, giving the final -pe spelling; compare yep, welp, ope, and yup. (Luick instead explained it through a final glottal stop, but the simpler view is that -pe directly reflects the closed-lip pronunciation.)
**Meaning 5** — Probably a rebracketing of "an ope," itself from "alp" meaning "bullfinch."
**Meanings 4, 6** — Possibly influenced by "nape" and "knap."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/nope (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).