English

Contraction

aren’t

1. Contraction of are not.
2. (colloquial) Spelling replacement of the homonym an’t, a contraction of “am not”, used e.g. in the construction aren’t I?
   • 1800, Fenn, George Manville, To Win Or To Die: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze:

     I’m a nasty-tempered dog if any one tries to take my bone away; aren’t I, my sons?

   • 2008 July 1, Daren Kagasoff as Ricky Underwood, “Falling in Love”, in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, season 1, episode 1:

     Aren’t I supposed to tell you how I feel?

   • 2010 October 26, Athletics (music), “Why Aren’t I Home?”, in Why Aren’t I Home?:

Synonyms

• (are not): ain’t (slang)
• (am not): ain’t (slang), amn’t (Scottish and Irish dialect)

Usage notes

• Aren’t as a contraction of “am not” is used most often in the question aren’t I? (= am I not?). In the non-interrogative form, the standard contraction of “I am not” is “I’m not”.

Antonyms

• (are not): are
• (am not): am

Anagrams

• antre, earnt, Netra