See couldn't on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":af",
"3": "could",
"4": "n't<alt:n’t>",
"text": "+",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "From could + n’t.",
"name": "ety"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From could + n’t.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "verb form"
},
"expansion": "couldn't",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries referencing missing etymons",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with etymology texts",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with etymon",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"word": "can't"
},
{
"word": "mayn't"
},
{
"word": "mightn't"
},
{
"word": "oughtn't"
},
{
"word": "shan't"
},
{
"word": "shouldn't"
},
{
"word": "won't"
},
{
"word": "wouldn't"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
4,
12
]
],
"text": "You couldn’t lend me a lighter, could you?",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
46,
54
]
],
"text": "‘Would you like another drink?’ ‘No thanks, I couldn’t.’",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Could not (negative auxiliary)."
],
"id": "en-couldn't-en-verb-09DqiCf8",
"links": [
[
"Could",
"could#English"
],
[
"not",
"not"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkʊd.n̩t/"
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊɾ.n̩ʔ]",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊ̃ʔ]",
"note": "African-American Vernacular"
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊnʔ]",
"tags": [
"Yorkshire"
]
},
{
"homophone": "cunt"
},
{
"audio": "en-us-couldn't.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/36/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg",
"tags": [
"US"
]
}
],
"word": "couldn't"
}
{
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"word": "can't"
},
{
"word": "mayn't"
},
{
"word": "mightn't"
},
{
"word": "oughtn't"
},
{
"word": "shan't"
},
{
"word": "shouldn't"
},
{
"word": "won't"
},
{
"word": "wouldn't"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":af",
"3": "could",
"4": "n't<alt:n’t>",
"text": "+",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "From could + n’t.",
"name": "ety"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From could + n’t.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "verb form"
},
"expansion": "couldn't",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English auxiliary verb forms",
"English compound terms",
"English contractions",
"English defective verbs",
"English entries referencing missing etymons",
"English entries with etymology texts",
"English entries with etymon",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English non-lemma forms",
"English terms with homophones",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English verb forms",
"Pages using etymon with no ID",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Pages with etymon"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
4,
12
]
],
"text": "You couldn’t lend me a lighter, could you?",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
46,
54
]
],
"text": "‘Would you like another drink?’ ‘No thanks, I couldn’t.’",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Could not (negative auxiliary)."
],
"links": [
[
"Could",
"could#English"
],
[
"not",
"not"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkʊd.n̩t/"
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊɾ.n̩ʔ]",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊ̃ʔ]",
"note": "African-American Vernacular"
},
{
"ipa": "[ˈkʊnʔ]",
"tags": [
"Yorkshire"
]
},
{
"homophone": "cunt"
},
{
"audio": "en-us-couldn't.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/36/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/En-us-couldn%27t.ogg",
"tags": [
"US"
]
}
],
"word": "couldn't"
}
Download raw JSONL data for couldn't meaning in All languages combined (1.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.