# nor

Pronunciation: US say "NOR" /nɔɹ/; UK say "NAW" /nɔː/

## Conjunction

1. Used after 'neither' or another negative, before the second and any later item, to show that none of them is true.
   - Simple: Used after 'neither' to join two or more things and show that none of them is true.
   - _She speaks neither French nor German, so she relied on a translator._
   - _He is neither tall nor short nor especially thin._
3. Used to mean 'and not', adding a further negative statement, usually after a negative clause but in literary style even without one.
   - Simple: Used to mean 'and not', usually to add one more negative idea after another one.
   - _The wind did not die down, nor did the rain stop when the sun came up._
   - _No one had heard from the travelers by nightfall, nor was there any sign of their car._
4. Used dialectally in parts of Britain to mean 'than' in a comparison. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: Used in some British dialects to mean 'than' when comparing two things.
   - _He's taller nor his brother by a good few inches._
   - _There's nowt better nor a hot meal after a day's work._

## Conjunction

2. Used in the sense of 'neither', especially before the first term of a negated pair. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Used instead of 'neither' before the first of two negative things, in older writing.
   - _Nor wind nor rain could drive them from the field._
   - _Nor king nor commoner was spared by the plague._

## Origin

Neither is a cognate of this word, which comes from Middle English nauther, itself from nother. Read at face value, it looks like not + or.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/nor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).