The Meaning and Uses of “Never Mind” vs. “Nevermind”

Many years ago, the famous Nirvana album led me to believe that “never mind” was the correct, or at least an acceptable—spelling for “never mind.” But it isn’t. The expression that means “don’t worry about it,” “forget about it,” and “it doesn’t matter” is “never mind.” That's the only proper way to write it down.

Anyway, “nevermind” is not merely a misspelling. It is still a word that can be found in some dictionaries, but it means something completely different.

The meaning of the noun “nevermind”

You might be surprised to find out that “nevermind” is a noun, and it should only be used in its negative form, “no nevermind.” It is a part of an old and pretty much obsolete expression.

Nevermind can be used instead of words like attention, business, responsibility, notice, affair, and heed, but only within specific contexts. Here are a couple of examples of sentences where “nevermind” acts as a synonym for the listed nouns:

I might be wrong, but it’s no nevermind of yours.

Pay that rude fellow no nevermind.

The first sentence means: “I might be wrong, but it’s none of your business.” The second one could be phrased like this: “Don’t pay attention to that rude guy.”

If the example sentences sound unnatural to you, that’s because this expression is used so rarely that you’re free to forget about it. Just make sure that you don’t write “nevermind” instead of “never mind.”

The meaning of the expression “never mind”

“Never mind” is an expression you can hear and read way more often than “nevermind.” You probably already know what it means and how to use it, bet let’s look at some examples.

I’ve lost my umbrella, do you know where it is? Oh, never mind! I just remembered where I put it.

I forgot to prepare the dinner on time. Never mind, I’ll just order some pizza.

I can’t run for 10 minutes without taking a break, never mind running a marathon.

The use of “never mind” is so common that it doesn’t require an elaborate explanation. Most often, it means “it doesn’t matter,” “don’t bother about it,” or “forget about it.” It can also be used as a conjunction, just like the phrase “let alone,”—which we could use in the third example sentence.

How to choose between “never mind” and “nevermind”‌‌

Now that you know the difference between “never mind” and “nevermind,” it’s easy to choose the more appropriate expression based on what you’d like to convey. But the latter is so rare and old-fashioned that you probably won’t use it much. Unless you’re writing an article about the meaning and usage of “nevermind,” the expression you’re looking for will always be “never mind.” English tutoring platforms like LiveXP can help you understand even more nuances of the English language and learn to speak like a native.