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double negative
noun
- a syntactic construction in which two negative words are used in the same clause to express a single negation.
double negative
noun
- a syntactic construction, often considered ungrammatical in standard Modern English, in which two negatives are used where one is needed, as in I wouldn't never have believed it
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Usage Note
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Usage
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Word History and Origins
Origin of double negative1
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Example Sentences
Thorne also worked closely with Double Negative, the visual-effects aces who worked on Interstellar.
This use of the double negative, as in modern provincial English, is extremely common, and need not be again remarked upon.
Here the positive charge on the two sodium ions equals the double negative charge on the SO4 ion.
Chaucer, at the beginning of the period of transition to Modern English, used the double negative with the utmost freedom.
"Haven't got none," declared the boy with a scowl as positive as his double negative.
And to dally with the double negative, as in "I have no doubt but that."
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