must
/məst/
"must" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“must” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #198 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #198
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 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...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| 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) |
Where “must” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for must is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, 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 generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for must, with forms such as "mmust", "msut", and "musst". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mute", "mutt", "musty", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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… The correct English form is must, spelled M-U-S-T.
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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of must - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “must”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /məst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mute” - see the side-by-side comparison. must vs mute
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.