The aughts is a way of referring to the decade 2000 to 2009 in American English. ... These arise from the words aught and nought respectively, both meaning zero. In the English-speaking world, a name for the decade was never universally agreed on as it was for decades such as the eighties, the nineties, etc.

What does the term aughts mean?

1 : zero, cipher. 2 archaic : nonentity, nothing. 3 aughts plural : the ten year period from 2000 through 2009 By the middle of the aughts, … the percentage of 26-year-olds living with their parents reached 20 percent, nearly double what it was in 1970.—

What does the word mid aughts mean?

"Mid-aughts" refers to the first decade of a century. Example: 2000-2009 or 1900-1909. So, in this text, they're saying that the average American supermarket has shrunk from it's Hugh of over 45,000 square feet in (the first ten years of the century).