ろくでもない

i-adjective

good-for-nothing; worthless

Conjugation

	Affirmative	Negative
Present	ろくでもない	ろくでもなくない
Past	ろくでもなかった	ろくでもなくなかった
て form	ろくでもなくて	ろくでもなくなくて
Adverbial	ろくでもなく	—
Conditional ば	ろくでもなければ	ろくでもなくなければ
Conditional たら	ろくでもなかったら	ろくでもなくなかったら

1. good-for-nothing; worthless; no-good; lousy

Describes something or someone that has no value or merit, often used with a tone of contempt or dismissal.

ろくでもない話(はなし)ばかりする。

He only talks about worthless things.

あいつはろくでもないやつだ。

That guy is a good-for-nothing.

若(わか)い頃(ころ)はろくでもないことばかりして、親(おや)に心配(しんぱい)をかけた。

When I was young, I only did worthless things and caused my parents worry.

A colloquial expression conveying strong disapproval or contempt. The ろく comes from 碌(ろく), meaning decent or proper, so ろくでもない literally means "not even decent." The variant ろくでなし is a noun form meaning "a good-for-nothing person."

Common collocations

ろくでもない話(はなし): worthless talk, nonsense
ろくでもないやつ: a good-for-nothing person
ろくでもないこと: worthless things, no-good deeds

Related words

ろくでなし: good-for-nothing (noun) — refers to a person
ろくに〜ない: not even properly; barely — e.g., ろくに食(た)べていない (hasn't eaten properly)

Similar words

くだらない: trivial, worthless — focuses on lack of interest or value rather than contempt
つまらない: boring, worthless — milder, emphasizing lack of interest
碌(ろく)な〜ない: no decent ~ — a related pattern meaning there's nothing good

Related Words

Related: ろくでなし (good-for-nothing)

Compare: くだらない (trivial, worthless)

Compare: つまらない (boring, worthless)

general

Added 2026.3.31 23:08 · Revised 2026.9.2 13:02

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