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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

aught.

Anything whatsoever, any part.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

pron/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Anything whatsoever, any part.

    archaic · dialectal
    for aught I know/care
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English āht, āwiht, from ā (“always", "ever”) + wiht (“thing", "creature”). More at wight.

adv/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. At all, in any degree, in any respect.

    archaic · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English āht, āwiht, from ā (“always", "ever”) + wiht (“thing", "creature”). More at wight.

noun/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Whit, the smallest part, iota.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English āht, āwiht, from ā (“always", "ever”) + wiht (“thing", "creature”). More at wight.

noun/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Zero.

    proscribed · sometimes
  2. The digit zero.

Where this word comes from

Rebracketing of a naught.

noun/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Estimation.

    regional · uncountable
    in my aught
  2. Of importance or consequence (in the phrase "of aught").

    regional · uncountable
    an event of aught
  3. Esteem, respect.

    obsolete · rare · regional · uncountable
    a man of aught
    Show some aught to your elders, boy.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English aught (“estimation, regard, reputation”), from Old English ǣht (“estimation, consideration”), from Proto-West Germanic *ahtu. Cognate with Dutch acht (“attention, regard, heed”), German Acht (“attention, regard”). Also see ettle.

verb/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Obsolete or dialectal form of ought

    alt-of · dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Originally the past tense of owe.

num/ɔːt/Received-Pronunciation/oːt/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ɔt/Scotland/ɔt/US
  1. Obsolete or dialectal form of eight.

    alt-of · dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ahte, from Old English eahta (“eight”). More at eight.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.