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Nobody vs Cannot - What's the difference?

nobody | cannot |

As nouns the difference between nobody and cannot

is that nobody is someone who is not important or well-known while cannot is something that cannot be done.

As a pronoun nobody

is not any person; the logical negation of somebody.

As a verb cannot is

not (am/is/are unable to).

nobody

English

Pronoun

(English Pronouns)
  • Not any person; the logical negation of somebody.
    • I asked several people, but nobody knew how.
    Nobody called or visited that day.

    Usage notes

    * (term) has a lower degree of formality than (no one).

    Synonyms

    * no one

    Antonyms

    * anybody, anyone * everybody, everyone * somebody, someone

    Related terms

    * anybody * everybody * somebody * nowhere * nothing

    Noun

    (nobodies)
  • Someone who is not important or well-known.
    • Whether you're a nobody or a player, everyone in Tinseltown wants to be King of Hollywood! - Conquering Hollywood

    cannot

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • not (am/is/are unable to).
  • Am/are/is forbidden or not permitted to
  • * 1668 December 19, , “Mr.'' Alexander Seaton ''contra'' Menzies” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
    • The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Di?charge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extingui?h the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and con?equently of all the re?t, they being all correi debendi , lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Di?charged as to one, and ?tand as to all the re?t.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
    • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
    Usage notes
    Both the one-word form cannot' and the two-word form '''can not''' are acceptable, but '''cannot''' is more common (in the , three times as common). The two-word form is better only in a construction in which '''not is part of a set phrase, such as 'not only... but (also)': ''Paul can not only sing well, but also paint brilliantly .

    Synonyms

    * can't

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that cannot be done.
    • the cans and cannots

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English auxiliary verb forms ----