"ought to" meaning in English

See ought to in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Head templates: {{head|en|verb}} ought to
  1. (auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation. Tags: auxiliary Related terms: aught, ought
    Sense id: en-ought_to-en-verb-4LdrP3VU
  2. (auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence. Tags: auxiliary
    Sense id: en-ought_to-en-verb-v~7qgJIn
  3. (auxiliary) Indicating desirability. Tags: auxiliary
    Sense id: en-ought_to-en-verb-NPS-TaOC Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English non-constituents, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 22 22 33 23 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 21 19 38 21 Disambiguation of English non-constituents: 22 20 39 20 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 20 19 42 19
  4. (auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability. Tags: auxiliary
    Sense id: en-ought_to-en-verb-2EAZpSM6

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for ought to meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "ought to",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating duty or obligation."
      ],
      "id": "en-ought_to-en-verb-4LdrP3VU",
      "links": [
        [
          "duty",
          "duty#English"
        ],
        [
          "obligation",
          "obligation#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "37 19 22 23",
          "word": "aught"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "37 19 22 23",
          "word": "ought"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating advisability or prudence."
      ],
      "id": "en-ought_to-en-verb-v~7qgJIn",
      "links": [
        [
          "advisability",
          "advisability#English"
        ],
        [
          "prudence",
          "prudence#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "22 22 33 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 19 38 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 20 39 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English non-constituents",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 19 42 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating desirability."
      ],
      "id": "en-ought_to-en-verb-NPS-TaOC",
      "links": [
        [
          "desirability",
          "desirability#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating desirability."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating likelihood or probability."
      ],
      "id": "en-ought_to-en-verb-2EAZpSM6",
      "links": [
        [
          "likelihood",
          "likelihood#English"
        ],
        [
          "probability",
          "probability#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ought to"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English modal verbs",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English non-constituents",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "ought to",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "aught"
    },
    {
      "word": "ought"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English auxiliary verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating duty or obligation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "duty",
          "duty#English"
        ],
        [
          "obligation",
          "obligation#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English auxiliary verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating advisability or prudence."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "advisability",
          "advisability#English"
        ],
        [
          "prudence",
          "prudence#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English auxiliary verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating desirability."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "desirability",
          "desirability#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating desirability."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English auxiliary verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicating likelihood or probability."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "likelihood",
          "likelihood#English"
        ],
        [
          "probability",
          "probability#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "auxiliary"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ought to"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). 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.