What does "aughts" mean?

The first decade of a century, such as 1900 to 1909 or 2000 to 2009, whose digit in the tens place is zero; the noughties.

What is a synonym for "aughts"?

Common synonyms include: 00s, aughties, noughties.

//ɒts// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The first decade of a century, such as 1900 to 1909 or 2000 to 2009, whose digit in the tens place is zero; the noughties. plural, plural-only
"The 20th Century’s Aughts and Teens: OPERETTA [chapter title]"

Adjective

1
From or evoking the first decade of a century (chiefly the 2000s). not-comparable
"Dialup internet is so aughts."

"Bill Maher hasn't been left of center since the aughts."

From the sense of aught to refer to the number zero.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.