aughts

noun

1. (plural, plural-only)The first decade of a century, such as 1900 to 1909 or 2000 to 2009, whose digit in the tens place is zero; the noughties.

   “The 20th Century’s Aughts and Teens: OPERETTA [chapter title]”

   “When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single “Boyfriend” was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber’s Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.”

   “Holy nostalgic flashback, Batman! Aly and AJ Michalka, the actor-musician sister duo known for dominating Radio Disney in the late aughts (they’ve also released some very good music since then), just sent us straight back to our tweens by wearing none other than iconic mall brand Limited Too.”

   “In the late 1990s and early aughts, at the beginning of the anti-human trafficking movement, people did use the term child prostitution.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)From or evoking the first decade of a century (chiefly the 2000s).

   “Dialup internet is so aughts.”

   “Meyer and his team collected the participants in a very aughts way — through Craigslist.”

   “He's testing out new experiments with knotting and macramé too, tying up dresses and trousers for a look that feels very aughts—and very now.”