ought

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

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe +‎ -t.

Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “capable of, liable”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɔːt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːt
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɔt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɑt/
• Homophone: aught

Verb

ought

1. (obsolete) simple past of owe

Verb

ought

1. (auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.

2. (auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence.

3. (auxiliary) Indicating desirability.

4. (auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability.

Usage notes

• Ought is an auxiliary verb; it takes a following verb as its complement. This following verb may appear either as a full infinitive (such as “to go”) or a bare infinitive (such as simple “go”), depending on region and speaker; the same range of meanings is possible in either case. Additionally, it's possible for ought not to take any complement, in which case a verb complement is implied, as in, “You really ought to [do so].”
• The negative of ought is either ought not (to) or oughtn't (to) (yet oughtn't've: oughtn't *(to) have)

Synonyms

• should (In all senses)
• be supposed to

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• ought to
• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

Pronoun

ought

1. Alternative spelling of aught; anything

Adverb

ought (not comparable)

1. Alternative spelling of aught; at all, to any degree.

Noun

ought (plural oughts)

1. A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.

See also

• aught
• naught
• nought

References

• “ought”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ought”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology 2

Noun

ought (plural oughts)

1. Alternative spelling of aught; cipher, zero, nought.

Anagrams

• tough

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ouȝt, eawiht, aht, aught, auht, aut

Etymology

From Old English āht, ōht, shortening of āwiht, ōwiht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔu̯xt/, /au̯xt/

Pronoun

ought

1. anything, everything
2. something

Descendants

• English: ought, aught, owt
• Scots: ocht
• Yola: aught, aaght

References

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