must
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To do as a requirement.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhstIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmʌst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
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.
To do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate.
Used to indicate that something is very likely, probable, or certain to be true.
transitive
To make musty.
intransitive
To become musty.
noun
Something that is mandatory, required or recommended.
Fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented, usually from grapes.
Chiefly preceded by in or on: the state each year during which a male animal (usually a camel or an elephant) exhibits increased aggressiveness and sexual activity due to a high level of testosterone; (countable) an instance of this.
Something that exhibits the property of being stale or musty.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: 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.
Used this way, must is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Gather or bring together.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A call of the names of personnel at a military assembly.
Release from military service.
A list of names of officers and men in a military unit or ship's company.
Gather or bring together.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.