No-one, Noone, or No One—Which Is Right?

• No one is right.
• No-one is an uncommon variant form. It’s best to stick to the two-word version.
• Noone is wrong.

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Too many choices can sometimes confuse you, but with no one, it’s easy to learn which should be your go-to spelling.

No-one, Noone, or No One—Which Should I Use?

The correct way to spell no one is as two words, without the hyphen:

No one warned us about the incoming storm.

We went to the schoolyard, but there was no one there.

If you add a hyphen to no one, you get a much less common variant spelling of the word: no-one. Although it’s not technically incorrect, the hyphenated version cannot always be used instead of no one:

No-one person can lift that much weight.

No one person can lift that much weight.

Noone is not an acceptable way to spell no one in any context:

We owe nothing and noone.

We owe nothing and no one.

Examples

He’d warned his colleagues of the dangers of Brexit and no one had bothered to listen.

The Guardian

China’s first astronaut says he heard mysterious knocks during his first flight in space – but no one has been able to explain the cause of them.

The Daily Mirror

The Prince arrived in the Commonwealth realm of St Kitts and Nevis after an overnight crossing from Antigua, but docked so early that there was no one there to welcome him.

The Daily Telegraph

There are several reasons for a word to have multiple spellings. Sooner or later you’ll run across one that will make you second-guess your spelling choices. Camaraderie is that type of word. Minuscule has become that type of word as well. And that’s without mentioning all the words that shift their spelling depending on the country in which they’re used.