must

must

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of must in English

English Online Dictionary. What means must‎? What does must mean?

English

Pronunciation

  • (stressed) IPA(key): /ˈmʌst/
  • (unstressed) IPA(key): /məs(t)/
  • Homophone: mussed
  • Rhymes: -ʌst

Etymology 1

From Middle English moste ("must", literally, "had to", the past tense of Middle English moten (“to have to”)), from Old English mōste (“had to”), 1st & 3rd person singular past tense of mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, must, may”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną. Cognate with Dutch moest (“had to”), German musste (“had to”), Swedish måste (“must, have to, be obliged to”). More at mote.

Alternative forms

  • mus' (dialectal)

Verb

must (third-person singular simple present must, no present participle, simple past must, no past participle) (modal auxiliary, defective)

  2. To do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a failure or negative consequence.
  4. To do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate.
  6. Used to indicate that something is very likely, probable, or certain to be true.
Usage notes
  • (auxiliary, to do as a requirement): Compare with weaker auxiliary verb should, indicating mere intent for the predicate’s execution; and stronger auxiliary verb will, indicating that the negative consequence will be unusually severe.
  • (auxiliary, to do with certainty): Compare with weaker auxiliary verb should, indicating a strong probability of the predicate’s execution.
  • The past tense of “must” is also “must”. In main clauses, this use of the past tense is almost always literary (see King James Bible, Leiber, and Alcott quotations at Citations:must). In subordinate clauses, it is more common: He knew that he must come, but he never showed up. Otherwise, the past sense is usually conveyed by had to. It is possible to use was bound to for the past also. For this reason, have to and be bound to are also used as alternatives to must in the present and future.
  • The principal verb, if easily supplied (especially go), may be omitted. In modern usage this is mainly literary (see Housman and Tolkien quotations at Citations:must).
  • Must is unusual in its negation: must not still expresses a definite certainty or requirement. Need and have to, on the other hand, are negated in the usual manner. Compare:
You must not read that book. (It is necessary that you not read that book.)
You need not read that book. / You do not have to read that book. (It is not necessary that you read that book.)
  • The second-person singular (thou being the subject) no longer adds -est (as it did in Old English).
Conjugation
Derived terms
Translations
See also
  • Appendix:English modal verbs
  • Appendix:English tag questions

Noun

must (plural musts)

  1. Something that is mandatory or required.
    Synonyms: imperative, necessity
    Antonym: no-no
    Hyponyms: must-do, must-have, must-see
Descendants
  • → French: must
  • → Finnish: must
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English must, from Old English must and Old French must, most, both from Latin mustum.

Noun

must (countable and uncountable, plural musts)

  1. The property of being stale or musty.
  2. Something that exhibits the property of being stale or musty.
  4. Fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented, usually from grapes.
Derived terms
  • must weight
Translations

Verb

must (third-person singular simple present musts, present participle musting, simple past and past participle musted)

  1. (transitive) To make musty.
  2. (intransitive) To become musty.
Further reading
  • must on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

From Persian مست (mast, “drunk, inebriated”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭮𐭲 (mast).

Noun

must (countable and uncountable, plural musts)

  1. Alternative form of musth
    • 1936, George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, an essay in the magazine New Writing:
      It was not, of course, a wild elephant, but a tame one which had gone ‘must’.

Anagrams

  • UMTS, MTUs, tums, stum, smut, UTMs, UTMS, Stum

Dutch

Etymology

From English must, from Old English mōste, from the past tense of Proto-West Germanic *mōtan, whence native moeten.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mʏst/

Noun

must m (plural musts)

  1. a must (necessity, prerequisite)
    Synonym: moetje

Estonian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *musta. Cognate with Finnish musta, Veps must and Livonian mustā. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *mus-ta-, compare Norwegian Bokmål must (“steam, fume, mist”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmust/
  • Hyphenation: must

Adjective

must (genitive musta, partitive musta, comparative mustem, superlative kõige mustem or mustim)

  1. black (color)
  2. Dark, without light, illumination (and poorly visible).
    1. Without snow.
  3. Having dark skin.
  4. Dirty, unclean, full of garbage and/or grime.
    Synonym: räpane
    1. Not requiring special skills, making something or someone dirty.
  5. Grim, dreary, hopeless, without any (good) solution.
    1. Illegal, unofficial, disgraceful.

Declension

Noun

must (genitive musta, partitive musta)

  1. The color black.
  2. Something colored in black.
  3. A person having dark skin.

Declension

Antonyms

  • valge

Derived terms

  • mustus
  • mustuma
  • mustendama
  • mustenma
  • mustama

Related terms

  • must auk
  • mustvalge
  • musträstas
  • süsimust
  • must sõstar

See also

References

Finnish

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English must.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɑst/, [ˈmɑ̝s̠t]
  • Rhymes: -ɑst

Noun

must (colloquial)

  1. must (something mandatory or required)
Declension
  • Not inflected.
Synonyms
  • pakko; pakollinen juttu

Further reading

  • “must”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01

Etymology 2

A variant of musta < minusta (“of me”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmust/, [ˈmus̠t]
  • Rhymes: -ust
  • Hyphenation(key): must

Pronoun

must

  1. (colloquial) elative singular of mä

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English must.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mœst/

Noun

must m (plural musts)

  1. (informal) that which is compulsory; an obligation; duty; must
    Synonyms: essentiel, impératif
  2. (often humorous) must-have (item that one must own)

Hungarian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈmuʃt]
  • Hyphenation: must
  • Rhymes: -uʃt

Noun

must (usually uncountable, plural mustok)

  1. must (sweet fresh grape juice that has not fermented yet)

Declension

Further reading

  • must in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Ludian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

Adjective

must

  1. black

Middle English

Alternative forms

  • most, moste, moust, muste

Etymology

From Old English must and Old French must, most, both from Latin mustum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /must/

Noun

must (uncountable)

  1. must (wine that is not fully fermented)
  2. (rare, with qualifier) fruit juice

Descendants

  • English: must

References

  • “must, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mustum

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /must/

Noun

must m

  1. must (newly or partially fermented wine)

Descendants

  • Middle English: must
    • English: must

References

  • Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “must”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎[2], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin mustum, from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mews- (“damp”).

Noun

must n (plural musturi)

  1. unfermented wine; grape or other fruit juice
  2. must (of grapes)

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

  • mustos
  • mustăreață

See also

  • zeamă, suc

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse muster, moster, from Latin mustum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɵst/

Noun

must c (uncountable)

  2. (drink made from) fruit or berry juice (that has been prevented from fermenting)
  3. a kind of soft drink, more commonly known as julmust

Declension

See also

  • must on the Swedish Wikipedia.Wikipedia sv

References

  • must in Svensk ordbok (SO)
  • must in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
  • must in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

  • stum, tums

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

Adjective

must

  1. black

Inflection

Derived terms

  • musteta
  • Mustmägi
  • mustsil'mäine
  • mustverine

Noun

must

  1. black

Inflection

References

  • Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “чёрный”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎[3], Petrozavodsk: Periodika

Volapük

Noun

must (nominative plural musts)

  1. must (new wine; sweet cider)

Declension

Võro

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

Adjective

must (genitive musta, partitive musta)

  1. black (colour)

Inflection

Bookmark
share
WebDictionary.net is an Free English Dictionary containing information about the meaning, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, translations, etymology and more.

Related Words

mustang

Browse the English Dictionary

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

License

This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.