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Grammatically, the word "nothing" is an indefinite pronoun, which means that it refers to something. This can lead to confusion, "Nothing" is a concept, concepts are things, so the concept of "Nothing" is a thing. This fallacy is neatly demonstrated by the old joke, if nothing is worse than the Devil, and nothing is greater than God, then the Devil must be greater than God: The simplest meaning is: no thing. So if "Nothing" is said to be in a particular place, have a particular quality, then it is meant that "no thing" is there, or has this or that quality. The word "naught" also has this same meaning. Clauses can often be restated to avoid the appearance that "nothing" possesses an attribute: "There is nothing in the basement" can be restated as "There is not one thing in the basement". "Nothing is missing" can be restated as "everything is present". Conversely, many fallacious conclusions follow from treating "nothing" as a noun. Modern logic made it possible to articulate these points coherently as intended, and many philosophers hold that the word "nothing" does not function as a noun: there is not any object it refers to. There are still various opposing views, though: that, for example, our understanding of the world rests essentially on noticing absences and lacks as well as presences, and that "nothing" and related words serve to indicate these.