# Is “noone” as correct and acceptable as “no one”? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076 "2006-01-22T05:49:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Critical\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/1 "2006-01-22T05:49:02Z")
My apologies if this topic has been brought up before. I tried searching, but the search function deemed that noone was too common to search for. I only recently noticed that noone is a commonly used word. I suppose I’ve seen it before, but attributed it to being a typo instead of the intended spelling. I’ve always used “no one” and thought of it as two words. To me, noone looks wrong. My mind looks at noone and says noon. Is noone a regional thing (Canadian here)? Is it a recent phenomenon? Is it two words or one? Would it be used in a formal document or is it used more colloquially? I don’t know if there are factual answers to this question, so I’ll throw this into IMHO. Please move to a more appropriate forum if this proves to be the wrong one. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/2 "2006-01-22T06:21:13Z")
It’s not acceptable to me. If I saw it in print I would consider it to be the result of poor editing and proofing. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/3 "2006-01-22T07:16:03Z")
To me, it’s “no one”. “Noone” is just “noon” with a sloppy e at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/4 "2006-01-22T07:19:47Z")
It’s not correct or accepted formally. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/5 "2006-01-22T08:44:33Z")
_Noone_ looks wrong, but you would think it should be as acceptable as _someone_. Apparently not. ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/6 "2006-01-22T11:05:23Z")
Once in junior high I left a binder unattended in a room. The binder was signed all over by friends of mine. Someone wrote, “Hi Lynn, from Noone” while the binder was out of my sight. All I could think was, “I don’t know anyone named Noone! What an odd name!” And it took me a couple of weeks to get it. Yeahhh. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/7 "2006-01-22T12:03:18Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > It’s not acceptable to me. If I saw it in print I would consider it to be the result of poor editing and proofing. Yeah, it bugs me, too. Though I seem to recall that Clancy’s ‘Sum of All Fears’ paperback spelled it that way consistently. Oofah. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/8 "2006-01-22T13:56:24Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > Yeah, it bugs me, too. Though I seem to recall that Clancy’s ‘Sum of All Fears’ paperback spelled it that way consistently. Oofah. That’s what you get for reading Tom Clancy. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/9 "2006-01-22T14:52:11Z")
In an effort to be clever I planned to mention [Peter Noone](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634760/) of Herman’s Hermits fame, but wanted to be sure of his spelling so I went to IMDB and just entered “Noone” into the Names search. Try it. You’ll like it. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/10 "2006-01-22T15:11:53Z")
It just gives me a list of actors named Noone. Pretty much what I was expecting, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/11 "2006-01-22T15:14:34Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > It just gives me a list of actors named Noone. Pretty much what I was expecting, to be honest. I didn’t expect so many. Peter was the only one I knew of before the search. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/12 "2006-01-22T16:23:39Z")
I have seen the use of “no-one” in books published in the UK. Logically, “noone” makes sense as a parallel to “someone,” but the problem is that it would then be pronounced “noon” and the meaning lost. So it still remains two words. The OED does not list “noone”; a search on the term comes up with “no one,” so it’s probably considered an usual variant (though they do have “no-one”). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/13 "2006-01-22T17:07:51Z")
I always use “no-one”, but then, I’m a Lynne Truss fanatic. ---
**Author:** ![Rachm\_Qoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Rachm\_Qoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachm_Qoch)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/14 "2006-01-22T17:41:20Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I have seen the use of “no-one” in books published in the UK. > > Logically, “noone” makes sense as a parallel to “someone,” but the problem is that it would then be pronounced “noon” and the meaning lost. So it still remains two words. > > The OED does not list “noone”; a search on the term comes up with “no one,” so it’s probably considered an usual variant (though they do have “no-one”). You could simplify things and just use [_noöne_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis#Usage). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/15 "2006-01-22T20:01:26Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > In an effort to be clever I planned to mention [Peter Noone](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634760/) of Herman’s Hermits fame, but wanted to be sure of his spelling so I went to IMDB and just entered “Noone” into the Names search. Try it. You’ll like it. I read a magazine article about Noone once where the word processor program decided it was “noone” and when it needed to insert a line break, hyphenation ensued. (I am amazed at how often such errors are found in newspapers and magazines today. Whatever happened to copy editing?) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/16 "2006-01-22T21:32:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > (I am amazed at how often such errors are found in newspapers and magazines today. Whatever happened to copy editing?) Overworked, underpaid and generally not considered to be an interesting/fun job. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/17 "2006-01-22T22:52:53Z")
There is a contraction for “no one.” The word you’re searching for is “none.” If you’re seeing “noone,” I’d chalk it up to a typo. Or even a typoo. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/18 "2006-01-22T23:13:36Z")
It’sokifyourspacebardoesn’twork ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/19 "2006-01-22T23:24:08Z")
I misspelled “no one” as “noone” when I was a kid. My teacher said “noon-y?” and I never made that mistake again. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-noone-as-correct-and-acceptable-as-no-one/341076/20 "2006-01-22T23:41:47Z")
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