Ought

Part of speech: modal verb

Pronunciation: /ɔːt/

Definitions

1. A sense of moral duty to do something right ; something that is likely or expected to happen
2. An obligation based on what is considered morally correct ; an action that is probable or supposed to be done
3. A feeling or rule about what one must do morally ; an event or behavior that is expected or assumed to be true

Etymology: Today "ought" means little more than "should" or "be obliged to," but it began as the past tense of a verb meaning "to own." Old English "āgan" meant to possess, and its past tense "āhte" meant "had" in the sense of owned. Over centuries that sense of possession hardened into a sense of debt: if you possess something that belongs to someone else, you owe it to them, and then you are obliged to do something. The shift happened because the past tense was used in the present. Speakers began to treat "I ought" as a present-tense statement of obligation, so the form that once described what you had owned came to describe what you are bound to do. The verb "owe" comes from the same root, and "ought" is essentially a survivor of that older sense, now stripped of its possessive meaning and kept only as a modal.

Synonyms: should, must, shall, have to, need to

Antonyms: may, can, might