mēketi

This little word marks a stop. Something that was happening, or could happen, is now cut off and should not go on: "no longer," "no more," "not anymore." It is built from the ordinary word for "still" or "yet" (ἔτι) placed under a negative, so its plain force is "not still, not any longer."

What gives it a distinct flavor is the kind of negative it uses. New Testament Greek had two ways to say "not": one for stating plain facts, and one for commands, wishes, warnings, and purposes. This word uses the second kind. So it tends to show up not when the writer is simply reporting that something stopped, but when someone is being told to stop, or a goal is being set that something should never happen again. That is why so many of its appearances are instructions and appeals:

• "Sin no more" (John 5:14; John 8:11), a command to stop, not a prediction.
• "Let him steal no longer" (Ephesians 4:28) and "drink no longer only water" (1 Timothy 5:23), direct guidance to change a habit.
• "So that we should no longer be slaves to sin" (Romans 6:6) and "that they who live should no longer live for themselves" (2 Corinthians 5:15), the goal a changed life aims at.

English translations almost always land on "no longer" or "no more" for it, and that carries the basic sense well. The one thing a plain translation cannot show is this built-in note of decision and resolve: the word often carries the weight of "and let it not start up again."