Meaning of neither in English

neither

determiner, pronoun, conjunction, adverb

/ˈnaɪ.ðər/ /ˈniː.ðər/ us

/ˈnaɪ.ðɚ/ /ˈniː.ðɚ/

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not either of two things or people:

We've got two TVs, but neither works properly.

Neither of my parents likes my boyfriend.

Neither one of us is interested in gardening.

"Which one would you choose?" "Neither. They're both terrible."

If she doesn't agree to the plan, neither will Tom (= he will also not).

Chris wasn't at the meeting and neither was her assistant.

informal "I don't feel like going out this evening." "Me neither."

On two occasions she was accused of stealing money from the company, but in neither case was there any evidence to support the claims.

neither ... nor

used when you want to say that two or more things are not true:

Neither my mother nor my father went to university.

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The teams change ends at half-time so that neither side has an unfair advantage.
It's an absurd situation - neither of them will talk to the other.
Strangely, neither Carlo nor Juan saw what had happened.
This is a war which neither side can win.
His words to the press were deliberately equivocal - he didn't deny the reports but neither did he confirm them.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Either, or, neither, nor

Grammar

Neither, neither … nor and not … either

Neither allows us to make a negative statement about two people or things at the same time. Neither goes before singular countable nouns. We use it to say ‘not either’ in relation to two things. Neither can be pronounced /ˈnaɪðə(r)/ or /ˈni:ðə(r)/. …

Neither as a determiner

Neither … nor

We can use neither as a conjunction with nor. It connects two or more negative alternatives. This can sound formal in speaking: …

Not with neither and nor

When a clause with neither or nor is used after a negative clause, we invert the subject and the verb after neither and nor: …

Neither do I, Nor can she

We use neither and nor + auxiliary/modal verb + subject to mean ‘also not’: …

Not … either

We can use not … either to mean ‘also not’, but we do not change the word order of the auxiliary or modal verb and subject: …

Neither: typical errors

We use neither, not none, when we are talking about two people or things: …

Idioms

be neither here nor there

be neither one thing nor the other

(Definition of neither from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

neither | American Dictionary

neither

pronoun, conjunction, adjective [ not gradable ]

/ˈni·ðər, ˈnɑɪ-/

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not one and not the other of two things or people:

They have two TVs but neither one works.

Neither of my brothers could come to the party.

infml "I don’t feel like going out tonight." "Me neither."

Idiom

neither here nor there

(Definition of neither from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of neither

neither

They also made it clear that they neither wanted nor expected many treaties to be made.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since neither of these conditions provides information on the spatial location of the target, the subtraction gives a pure measure of alerting.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both the external and internal environments are important, and neither can be viewed independently of the other.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither the obscuration nor the defiance can do justice to things as they really are.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Lions do not love; but neither do they philosophise; bears do not love; but the reason is they do not know the sweets of friendship.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The past and the present seemed to him neither antithetical nor separable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of the more ideological parties attracted a large following however.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

My penitence can neither cause nor earn your forgiveness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They can neither bring about nor earn your forgiveness since that remains up to you to decide.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As such neither you nor our relationship can be replaced by another.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They are neither friends, nor lovers, nor fathers, nor citizens of the world, nor benefactors of their country.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When neither soul nor body has been crossed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither did much change for the provincial police.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Goods that are neither consumed nor placed into this technology will perish once the investment opportunity has passed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the first place one must recognise that the choice of (principal) language need be determinant neither of ethnicity nor of nationality.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of neither

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of neither?