Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
Something that ought to be the case as opposed to already being the case.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
simple past of shall
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: form-of, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; indicating opinion, advice, or instruction, about what is required or desirable.
Used to issue an instruction (traditionally seen as carrying less force of authority than alternatives such as 'shall' or 'must').
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; indicating opinion, advice, or instruction, about what is required or desirable.
Used to give advice or opinion that an action is, or would have been, beneficial or desirable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; indicating opinion, advice, or instruction, about what is required or desirable.
With verbs such as 'see' or 'hear', usually in the second person, used to point out something remarkable in either a good or bad way.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, informal, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; indicating opinion, advice, or instruction, about what is required or desirable.
In questions, asks what is correct, proper, desirable, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; expressing expectation.
Indicates that something is expected to have happened or to be the case now.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Ought to; expressing expectation.
Will be likely to (become or do something); indicates a degree of possibility or probability that the stated thing will happen or be true in the future.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Used to form a variant of the present subjunctive, expressing a state or action that is hypothetical, potential, mandated, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past, subjunctive
Synonyms: were
Antonyms: none provided
verb
An alternative to would with first person subjects.
Used to express a conditional outcome.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, formal, literary, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
An alternative to would with first person subjects.
Used to impart a tentative, conjectural or polite nuance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Qualifier: formal or literary outside certain combinations such as with 'imagine' or 'think'
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
An alternative to would with first person subjects.
Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past, no-present-participle, participle, past
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To suggest (that someone ought to do something, or that something ought to be the case) by, or as if by, using the word should.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, defective, modal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Middle English scholde, from Old English sċolde, first and third person preterite form of sċulan (“should,” “have to,” “to owe”), the ancestor of English shall. By surface analysis, shall + -ed. Cognate with German sollte, Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (skulda), Swedish skulle. Related to Middle English shild and shildy. The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in would and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).
Across languages
138 source translations are retained for this English entry.
