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might.

Power, strength, force, or influence held by a person or group.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/maɪt/[maɪt]Received-Pronunciation[mɐɪt]US[mɑjt]British, Southern, Standard
  1. Power, strength, force, or influence held by a person or group.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Physical strength or force.

    uncountable
    He pushed with all his might, but still it would not move.
  3. The ability to do something.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English maught, might, miȝt, myght, from Old English maht, meaht, meht, mieht, miht, mæht (“ability, power; strength; virtue”), from Proto-West Germanic *mahti, from Proto-Germanic *mahtiz (“ability, power; force, strength”), from Proto-Indo-European *(me)mógʰe (“to be able to, to have power”), from *megʰ- (“to be able”), corresponding to Germanic *maganą (“to be able, may”) + *-þiz. Equivalent to may + -th. Cognates Cognate with Scots micht (“might”), Yola mought (“might”), Dutch macht (“might, power”), German Macht (“might, power”), Luxembourgish Muecht (“authority, might, power”), Yiddish מאַכט (makht, “might, power”), Faroese and Icelandic máttur (“might, strength”), Danish magt (“power; force”), Norwegian Bokmål makt (“power”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish makt (“power; force”), mått (“might, power”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (mahts, “ability, might, power”), and further to Irish smacht (“ordinance, regulation, rule; dominion, sway; control, discipline, restraint; fine, penalty”), Greek μάγος (mágos, “magician; sorcerer, wizard”), Lithuanian mėgti (“to like”), Belarusian моц (moc, “might, power”), Bulgarian мощ (mošt, “might, power”), Czech and Polish moc (“might, power”), Macedonian моќ (moḱ, “might, power”), Russian мочь (močʹ, “power, might”) and мощь (moščʹ, “force, strength”), Serbo-Croatian мо̑ћ, mȏć (“power; strength; potency; authority”), Slovene moč (“power; strength”), Ukrainian міч (mič) and міць (micʹ, “might, power”), Armenian մոգ (mog, “magus; fire-worshiper, Zoroastrian; astrologer; diviner, enchanter, sorcerer, wizard”), Persian مغ (moġ, “magus”), Sanskrit मघ (magha, “power, wealth; bounty, gift, reward”). See more at may.

adj/maɪt/[maɪt]Received-Pronunciation[mɐɪt]US[mɑjt]British, Southern, Standard
  1. Mighty; powerful.

    obsolete
  2. Possible.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English maught, might, miȝt, myght, from Old English maht, meaht, meht, mieht, miht, mæht (“ability, power; strength; virtue”), from Proto-West Germanic *mahti, from Proto-Germanic *mahtiz (“ability, power; force, strength”), from Proto-Indo-European *(me)mógʰe (“to be able to, to have power”), from *megʰ- (“to be able”), corresponding to Germanic *maganą (“to be able, may”) + *-þiz. Equivalent to may + -th. Cognates Cognate with Scots micht (“might”), Yola mought (“might”), Dutch macht (“might, power”), German Macht (“might, power”), Luxembourgish Muecht (“authority, might, power”), Yiddish מאַכט (makht, “might, power”), Faroese and Icelandic máttur (“might, strength”), Danish magt (“power; force”), Norwegian Bokmål makt (“power”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish makt (“power; force”), mått (“might, power”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (mahts, “ability, might, power”), and further to Irish smacht (“ordinance, regulation, rule; dominion, sway; control, discipline, restraint; fine, penalty”), Greek μάγος (mágos, “magician; sorcerer, wizard”), Lithuanian mėgti (“to like”), Belarusian моц (moc, “might, power”), Bulgarian мощ (mošt, “might, power”), Czech and Polish moc (“might, power”), Macedonian моќ (moḱ, “might, power”), Russian мочь (močʹ, “power, might”) and мощь (moščʹ, “force, strength”), Serbo-Croatian мо̑ћ, mȏć (“power; strength; potency; authority”), Slovene moč (“power; strength”), Ukrainian міч (mič) and міць (micʹ, “might, power”), Armenian մոգ (mog, “magus; fire-worshiper, Zoroastrian; astrologer; diviner, enchanter, sorcerer, wizard”), Persian مغ (moġ, “magus”), Sanskrit मघ (magha, “power, wealth; bounty, gift, reward”). See more at may.

verb/maɪt/[maɪt]Received-Pronunciation[mɐɪt]US[mɑjt]British, Southern, Standard
  1. simple past of may

    auxiliary · form-of · no-past-participle · no-present-participle · past
    He asked me if he might go to the party, but I haven't decided yet.
    I thought that I might go the next day.
  2. simple past of may Used to indicate a desired past action that was not done.

    auxiliary · no-past-participle · no-present-participle
    You might have warned me about the thunderstorm.
  3. Used to indicate conditional or possible actions; would perhaps/maybe.

    auxiliary · no-past-participle · no-present-participle
    Well, I might go to a party, but I haven't decided yet.
  4. Used concessively to admit something before making a more accurate or important statement; although

    auxiliary · no-past-participle · no-present-participle
    I might be in a wheelchair, but I still want to be treated as a lady.
  5. Used in polite requests for permission.

    archaic · auxiliary · no-past-participle · no-present-participle · often
    "Might I take the last biscuit? I wonder if I might have a little more coffee too." "Yes you may, help yourself.".
  6. Used to express certainty.

    UK · auxiliary · no-past-participle · no-present-participle
    Yeah, I think we might need something a bit sturdier.
Where this word comes from

From Old English meahte and mihte, inflections of magan, whence English may.

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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.