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Meaning & use

no members

phrase·Everyday

Last updated

UK/ˌnəʊ ˈmembəz/
US/ˌnoʊ ˈmembərz/

Meanings

  1. phrasefixed phrase

    Not a single person or thing belongs to a group, list, or organization.

    Grammar: Comes before 'of' plus a plural noun, or stands alone as the subject: 'No members attended.'

    Patterns

    • no members of something
    • no members attended/joined/voted
    • there are no members

    No members of the committee objected to the new plan.

    The forum has no members yet, so it looks empty.

    No members showed up for the early meeting, so we canceled it.

  2. phrasefixed phrase

    Used to say that a set, list, or group contains nothing at all.

    Grammar: Often used with 'have' or 'there are': 'The new list has no members.'

    Patterns

    • have no members
    • there are no members in something

    The online group has no members because it was just created.

    There are no members in this category, so the page shows nothing.

    After the last two people left, the team had no members left.

  3. phrasefixed phraseinformal

    Used in questions or negative statements about whether anyone belongs to a group.

    Grammar: Common after 'are there' or 'if there are': 'Are there no members available?'

    Patterns

    • are there no members?
    • if there are no members

    Are there no members who can help with this task?

    If there are no members present, the vote cannot go ahead.

    I checked twice, and there are simply no members on the list.

Common combinations

no members of the family
No members of the family came to the ceremony.
no members present
With no members present, the chair postponed the vote.
no members left
The club has no members left after the fee increase.
there are no members
There are no members in this group yet.
no members joined
No members joined the new training session.
have no members
The association may have no members by next year.

Synonyms and how they differ

nobody
Refers to people only and stands alone as a pronoun, while 'no members' needs a group to belong to.
none
A pronoun that replaces the whole group ('none of them'), whereas 'no members' keeps the noun in the sentence.
zero members
More numerical and often used in reports or statistics; 'no members' is the plainer everyday choice.

Opposites

all memberssome members

Word family

member noun
One person or thing that belongs to a group.
membership noun
The state of belonging to a group, or the group's members as a whole.
memberless adjective
Rare word meaning having no members at all.

Commonly confused: no members or no member? no members or nonmembers?

no members vs no member

Use the singular 'no member' when you mean not one single person: 'No member may vote twice.' Use the plural 'no members' when the focus is on a whole group: 'No members were present.'

no members vs nonmembers

'Nonmembers' means people who are not part of the group but may still be involved; 'no members' means the group is empty.

Practice

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