LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
adverb

numquam

numquam (not comparable)
Classical[ˈnʊŋ.kʷãː]Ecclesiastical[ˈnum.kʷam]
№ 251 of the 1,000 commonest wordsMille Verba core vocabulary

Meaning

  1. not comparablenever, at no time
    Ōlla observāta numquam fervetA watched pot never boils
    Numquam dicis have, sed reddis, Naevole, semperYou never say "hey", but you always return the greeting, Naevolus86 CE – 103 CE, Martialis, Epigrammata III.95
  2. not comparablenot at all, by no means

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

nūllō tempore.
numquam adv. — in Mille Verba, Tempus et Numerī

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

numquam ex animo meo memoria illius rei discedet
the memory of this will never fade from my mind.

numquam or nunquam (both in good use; the former prevails before the Augustan age), adv. ne-umquam,
I. at no time, never: numquam edepol med istoc vinces, Plaut. Stich. 5, 5, 13: quod (principium) si numquam oritur, ne occidit quidem umquam, Cic. Rep. 6, 25, 27; id. Att. 14, 13, 6: videre mihi videor tantam dimicationem, quanta numquam fuit, id. ib. 7, 1, 2: illum numquam, dum haec natio viveret sine curā futurum, id. Sest. 63, 132: numquam ante hoc tempus, Caes. B. G. 1, 44: numquam donec, Liv. 34, 23.—
B. Followed by a negative.
1. By a clause with quin, ut non, to denote that which always occurs: numquam fui usquam, quin me omnes amarent plurimum, Ter. Eun. 5, 9, 62: numquam epistulam tuam accipio, ut non protinus una simus, Sen. Ep. 40, 1.—
2. With a negative in the same clause, affirmatively: numquam non ineptum, always, Cic. de Or. 1, 24, 112; id. Fam. 12, 18, 1; Sen. Ep. 11, 4; cf.: probi mores numquam non plurimum profuerint, Quint. 7, 2, 33: numquam nisi honorificentissime Pompeium appellat, never otherwise than, always, Cic. Fam. 6, 6, 10.—*
II. For non, not, by no means: qui hodie numquam ad vesperam vivam! Plaut. As. 3, 3, 40: numquam omnes hodie moriemur inulti, Verg. A. 2, 670: numquam hodie effugies, by no means, id. E. 3, 49; cf. Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 270; id. Mil. 4, 4, 56; Ter. Heaut. 3, 1, 44: nihil in mentem? numquam quidquam ( = prorsus nihil), Ter. Ad. 4, 1, 12; cf. Plaut. Capt. 1, 1, 8.

Origins

From ne + umquam.

Ibero-Romance
  • Portuguesenuncafrom Old Galician-Portuguese nunca
  • Spanishnuncafrom Old Spanish nunqua
  • Aragonesenunca
  • Asturiannunca
  • Asturianñunca
  • Mirandesenunca
  • Galiciannuncafrom Old Galician-Portuguese nunca
Gallo-Romance
  • Catalannunca
  • Old Frenchnonque
  • Old Occitannonca
  • Old Occitannoca
Balkano-Romance
  • Aromanianningã
  • Aromanianninga
  • Aromaniannicã
  • Aromaniannica
  • Aromaniannincã
  • Aromanianninca
Italo-Romance
  • Old Italiannunqua
  • Old Italiannunque
  • Old Italiannunca
  • Old Italiannonca
  • Old Italiannuncamai
Borrowings
  • Interlinguanunquam

Quick answers

What does numquam mean in Latin?
numquam, a adverb, means “never, at no time; not at all, by no means”.
How do you pronounce numquam?
In classical Latin, [ˈnʊŋ.kʷãː]; in ecclesiastical (church) Latin, [ˈnum.kʷam].