ought
/ɔːt/verb, pronoun, adverb, noun
ought is spelled O-U-G-H-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “aught vs ought” about 590 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, ought means “Indicating duty or obligation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ought?
| Letters | 5: O-U-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 3,939th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ought?
Ought appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ought?
- UK /ɔːt/
- British /oːt/
- /ʊt/
Ought has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-aught.ogg, En-us-ought.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ought
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: aught (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: aught.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ought?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ought from its last stressed vowel (/ɔt/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tough.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ought
- oughts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ought mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
Indicating duty or obligation.
I ought to vote in the coming election.
- 2
Indicating advisability or prudence.
You ought to always stand back from the edge of the platform.
- 3
Indicating desirability.
He ought to read the book; it was very good.
- 4
Indicating likelihood or probability.
We ought to arrive by noon if we take the motorway, shouldn't we?
noun
- 1
A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
- 2
Alternative spelling of aught; cipher, zero, nought.
pronoun
- 1
Alternative spelling of aught; anything
adverb
- 1
Alternative spelling of aught; at all, to any degree.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ought in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense indicating duty or obligation:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ought come from?
From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe + -t.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).