ought
noun · adverb
Simple meaning
Whit, the smallest part.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awtIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔt
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.
noun
A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
Whit, the smallest part, iota.
adverb
At all, in any degree, in any respect.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
Used this way, ought is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case
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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.