# why undefined is not literals?

**URL:** <https://es.discourse.group/t/why-undefined-is-not-literals/1489>\
**Category:** I have questions\
**Created:** [October 9, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://es.discourse.group/t/why-undefined-is-not-literals/1489 "2022-10-09T15:53:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChoDragon9](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/es.discourse.group/chodragon9/32/1528_2.png) [@ChoDragon9](https://es.discourse.group/u/ChoDragon9)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://es.discourse.group/t/why-undefined-is-not-literals/1489/1 "2022-10-09T15:53:11Z")

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hi im peter cho from south korea.  
and front end senior developer.

i have some question about undefined and null.

undefined is defined in global object since es3.  
null and undefined are similar. so, i think undefined can be literals.

why undefined is defined in global object?  
why undefined is not defined in literals?

please let me know (\_ \_)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ljharb](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/es.discourse.group/ljharb/32/8_2.png) [@ljharb](https://es.discourse.group/u/ljharb)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://es.discourse.group/t/why-undefined-is-not-literals/1489/2 "2022-10-09T17:10:56Z")

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If you mean that `undefined` is not a keyword, and `null` is - I'm not sure _why_ this was originally the case, but changing it now (or likely even back in ES3) would break the web.