Is the proper spelling nevermind or never mind?
The only correct answer would be…
Never mind. Let’s answer that another time...!
All jokes aside, the correct spelling is never mind as two separate words. Nevermind is a misspelling that came about in the modern era when texting and digital messaging applications became prevalent.
When texting, people tend to use abbreviations, like acronyms or initialisms, of longer words in order to save time and type faster. People also type without minding formal grammar rules, misspelling words, leaving out spaces, and omitting capitalizing letters that should be capitalized. When typing never mind, some people started omitting the space. Whether it was on purpose or their thumbs just missed the spacebar, the misspelling nevermind started picking up some traction in the texting world.
If you take a look at Google Books Ngram Viewer, the misspelling nevermind is not used in published books while the properly spelled never mind has seen much use.
Example sentences
Below are some examples of how never mind is used in context. Because nevermind is a misspelling, only the correctly spelled never mind will be used in the following sentences.
Did you take out the trash? Never mind. I’ll just take it out myself.
Never mind. I found a better solution to fix the bug in the software.
Never mind the professor. He’s just always grumpy.
Carlos is leaving. Never mind. He’s coming back.
Never mind. I’ll ask Otis for advice on the hydrogen tank idea.
Gloria never minded the loud chatter of the kids living next door. She had always wanted children of her own but couldn’t bear any.
Never mind the details. Let’s just quickly finish this report and go home.
Have you been able to contact Eloise today? Never mind. She just texted me back.
Never mind. I thought that was someone else.
Jay never minded doing the dishes, but he got a dishwasher anyway to save himself some time.
Not to be confused with compound words or prefixes
Never mind is not to be confused with compound words, which are two or more words that are used together to create a new or combined meaning. There are open, closed, and hyphenated compound words.
- Open compound word: ice cream, first aid, hot dog
- Closed compound word: airport, fireplace, notebook
- Hyphenated compound word: check-in, word-of-mouth, empty-handed
Some open and hyphenated compound words over time become closed compound words. Some prime examples are online, bumblebee, mindset, proofreader, That is not the case for never mind, however. Never mind should be two separate words at all times.
Over time, hyphens have been dropped from words with prefixes as well. Words like re-cover and re-send also dropped their hyphens over the years.
Simon Rabinovitch
Around 16,000 words in the English language have dropped their hyphens to become one word in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary according to Reuters. Because of the trend of hyphens and spaces being dropped, people may mistakenly think that the space in never mind at one point was also dropped, but never mind still remains two words until this day.
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