Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

do nothing

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.49 in modern English

Syllables: do noth-ing
IPA

14

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To not take any action; to fail to do or accomplish something.

Example Sentences

""That colour does nothing for you" "Argh! And you do nothing but complain bout everything!""
"The new zero tolerance rules did nothing to make the school safer and improve its atmosphere; in fact, these rules may have made the school less safe and less desirable instead."
"But doing nothing is not an option. Our railway has been drifting, leaderless, for a couple of years. Sunak should also ponder as he panders."

Inflected Forms

does nothing (present, singular) doing nothing (participle, present) did nothing (past) done nothing (participle, past)

Questions

What does do nothing mean?: To not take any action; to fail to do or accomplish something.

How to pronounce do nothing

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “do nothing”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “do nothing”.
Repeat and practice — Say “do nothing” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.