must
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "must", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "must" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "must" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
must is aEnglishverb. It means: To do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a failure or negative con... Pronounced /məst/. It ranks #198 in English word frequency. Often confused with mute and mutt.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | must |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /məst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #198 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for must is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məst/. Corpus data places it at rank #198 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for must, with forms such as "mmust", "msut", and "musst". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mute", "mutt", "musty", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English moste ("must", literally, "had to", the past tense of Middle English moten (“to have to”)), from Old English mōste (“had to”), 1st & 3rd person singular past tense of mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compell… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is must, spelled M-U-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a failure or negative consequence.
- 2To do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate.
- 3Used to indicate that something is very likely, probable, or certain to be true.
Etymology
From Middle English moste ("must", literally, "had to", the past tense of Middle English moten (“to have to”)), from Old English mōste (“had to”), 1st & 3rd person singular past tense of mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, must, may”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną. Cognate with Dutch moest (“had to”), German musste (“had to”), Swedish måste (“must, have to, be obliged to”). More at mote.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmust,msut,musst,mustt,muts,umst
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for must
Misspelling Variants of "must"
Frequency rank: #198 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "must"?
What does "must" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "must"?
How do you pronounce "must"?
What is the origin of the word "must"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: