by no means

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Prepositional phrase

by no means

1. (idiomatic) certainly not; definitely not; not by any means.

   By no means am I suggesting that euthanasia should be outlawed, but rather that we should look at its inherent risks.

   • 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     He by no means gave up his shop. On the contrary, he kept well abreast of new discoveries. He followed the great movement of chocolates; he was the first to introduce "cocoa" and "revalenta" into the Seine-Inferieure.

   • 1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 78:

     Every photographer of experience has his own theories and methods of working, but for the last 14 years I have used a Leica exclusively, and have found it best adapted to the somewhat exacting demands of railway photography, which is by no means an easy branch of the art.

   • 2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35:

     Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.

Translations

certainly not

• Catalan: de cap manera, en absolut (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絕不／绝不 (zh) (juébù), 決不／决不 (zh) (juébù)

• Czech: v žádném případě
• Danish: ingenlunde, på ingen måde
• Dutch: zeker niet, in geen geval
• Finnish: ei suinkaan, ei missään nimessä
• French: en aucun cas (fr), aucunement (fr)
• Georgian: არანაირად (aranairad)
• German: keineswegs (de), auf keinen Fall (de)
• Icelandic: alls ekki (is)
• Italian: a nessun patto
• Japanese: 決して (ja) (けっして, kesshite) (+ negative)
• Latin: nullo modo, minimē (la), haud (la)
• Macedonian: во никој случај (vo nikoj slučaj)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: slett ikke, ingenlunde (no), på ingen måte, overhodet ikke (no)

• Polish: bynajmniej (pl)
• Portuguese: de modo algum
• Romanian: sub nicio formă
• Russian: нико́им о́бразом не (nikóim óbrazom ne), отню́дь не (ru) (otnjúdʹ ne), ниско́лько не (ru) (niskólʹko ne), ника́к не (ru) (nikák ne)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: naravno da ne

• Spanish: de ninguna manera, de ningún modo, ni por asomo
• Turkish: asla (tr), ne olursa olsun, hiçbir şekilde

See also

• by all means
• by no stretch

References

• “by no means”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.