Word.ws English Dictionary

cannot but

cannot but verb: to have to; to cannot help; to be unable to do otherwise than.

Verb

cannot but (third-person singular simple present cannot but, no present participle, simple past could not but, no past participle)

  1. (no-past-participle, no-present-participle) To have to; to cannot help; to be unable to do otherwise than.
    • I cannot but applaud your zeal for preserving the purity of our language, both in its expressions and pronunciation, and in correcting the popular errors several of our States are continually falling into with respect to both.1789, Benjamin Franklin, “Letter to Noah Webster, December 26, 1789”, in E. Sargent, editor, The select works of Benjamin Franklin, published 1855, page 498

Forms of cannot but

third-person singular presentcannot but
pastcould not but
alternative formcannot help but
alternative formcan't help but
alternative formcan't but

Questions about cannot but

What does cannot but mean?
Cannot but means to have to; to cannot help; to be unable to do otherwise than.
What part of speech is cannot but?
Cannot but is a verb.
What is the past tense of cannot but?
The past tense of cannot but is could not but.

Words near cannot but in the dictionary

  1. cannons
  2. Cannons Creek
  3. Cannonsville
  4. cannot
  5. cannot away with
  6. cannot but
  7. cannot help
  8. cannot help but
  9. cannot live with them, cannot live without them
  10. cannot make it
  11. cannot-link

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cannot but (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cannot but.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cannot_but. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.