Nonplussed vs Null - What's the difference?
nonplussed | null |
Bewildered; unsure how to respond or act.
* 1724 , (Daniel Defoe), :
* Episode 16
* 2000 , Marcia Miller & Martin Lee, Vocabulary, Word of the Day
(proscribed, US, informal) Unfazed, unaffected, or unimpressed.
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(nonplus)
A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
Something that has no force or meaning.
(computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
(computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
One of the beads in nulled work.
(statistics) null hypothesis
Having no validity, "null and void"
insignificant
* 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
absent or non-existent
(mathematics) of the null set
(mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
(genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
As an adjective nonplussed
is bewildered; unsure how to respond or act.As a verb nonplussed
is (nonplus).As a noun null is
zero, nil; the cardinal number before einn.nonplussed
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Note, the honest Quaker was nonplussed , and greatly surprised at that question.
- For the nonce he was rather nonplussed but inasmuch as the duty plainly devolved upon him to take some measures on the subject he pondered suitable ways and means during which Stephen repeatedly yawned.
- "Dad was so nonplussed by the new VCR that he gave up and asked Mom to set it for him ".
Usage notes
In recent North American English nonplussed has acquired the alternative meaning of "unimpressed". In 1999, this was considered a neologism, ostensibly from "not plussed", although "plussed" by itself is not a recognized English word. The "unimpressed" meaning is not considered standard usage by at least one authoritative source.{{cite web , url = http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/nonplussed?view=uk , title = askOxford: nonplussed , accessdate = 2007-04-20 , language = English }}Synonyms
* (bewildered) perplexed, vexed, thwarted, frustrated, foiled, confoundedVerb
(head)References
null
English
Noun
(en noun)- (Francis Bacon)
- Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
Adjective
(en adjective)- In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.