He warned me not to be late. I was sorry not to have seen them. Not everybody agrees.

Understanding the Context

They had still not decided. ‘Who's next?’ ‘Not me.’ ‘What did you do at school?’ ‘Not a lot.’ It's not easy being a parent (= it's difficult). It's not every day you get to meet a famous actor. The meaning of NOT is —used as a function word to make negative a group of words or a word.

Key Insights

How to use not in a sentence. NOT definition: 1. used to form a negative phrase after verbs like "be", "can", "have", "will", "must", etc…. Learn more. Learn what not means with clear definitions, pronunciation, synonyms, and real-world examples.

Final Thoughts

Simple explanations to help you use not correctly. Not is often shortened to n't in spoken English, and added to the auxiliary or modal verb. For example, 'did not' is often shortened to 'didn't'. NOT definition: (used to express negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition). See examples of not used in a sentence. 'Not' is a commonly used negative marker and pro-sentence in the English language.

In this lesson, we will discuss how to learn and use it. (used before a singular count noun) not even one (expressing emphasis about the lack of something):[~ + a/one + noun] He had not a penny to his name. Not a single missile got through the defense system. In this case not cannot appear after the verb; some authorities recommend placing it before to to avoid a split infinitive, but for most speakers the forms not to do and to not do are more or less interchangeable, with the latter being mostly informal.