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nonetheless

UK/ˌnʌnðəˈlɛs/US/ˌnʌnðəˈlɛs/
adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,294 of 15,258leans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Nonetheless means despite what was just said. The point stands anyway.

It is a formal connector, and it usually opens a sentence or sits after the subject, always with commas. Nevertheless is its exact twin and slightly commoner. Both concede the previous point and then refuse to be moved by it, which is why they are so useful in argument. All the same and even so are the conversational versions. The word is written as one word in modern English.

Definitions of nonetheless

  1. 1adverbnonethelessIn spite of what has just been said.B2

    “The evidence was thin; nonetheless, they went ahead.”

Where it comes from

  1. Old English

    nān þȳ lǣs

  2. Middle English

    natheles

  3. English, today

    nonetheless

A modification of natheless after none, from Middle English natheles, from Old English nān þȳ lǣs, nā þē lǣs, nā þȳ lǣs. by surface analysis, none + the + less.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 17 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

nonetheless in the wild

  • The city of Regensburg is enclosed by it, but is not part of the district; nonetheless it is its administrative seat.

    Regensburg (district)

  • The Syriac church, which disagreed with many distinctive Armenian customs, was not entirely pleased with the outcome at Manzikert, but accepted communion with the Armenians nonetheless.

    Council of Manzikert

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.