ought
Pronunciation: /ɔːt/
The English word “ought” has 5 meanings listed here.
verb
- Indicating duty or obligation.
- Indicating advisability or prudence.
- Indicating desirability.
- Indicating likelihood or probability.
noun
- A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
Etymology
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”).
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.