may as well
may as well verb: used to express reluctance, to express that if one hypothetical or possible action happened, it would not make any notable difference.
Verb
may as well (third-person singular simple present may as well, no present participle, simple past might as well, no past participle)
- Used to express reluctance, to express that if one hypothetical or possible action happened, it would not make any notable difference.
- They continued their inspection in silence, but at last the Doctor shrugged and said they may as well go back.1945, Roger S. Vreeland, The Mad Dancers
- For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing
'Twould make me sing
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind1965, Donovan, Catch the Wind
- Synonyms:
- might as well
Synonyms of may as well
Forms of may as well
| third-person singular present | may as well |
|---|---|
| past | might as well |
Words formed from may as well
Questions about may as well
- What does may as well mean?
- May as well means used to express reluctance, to express that if one hypothetical or possible action happened, it would not make any notable difference.
- What part of speech is may as well?
- May as well is a verb.
- What is the past tense of may as well?
- The past tense of may as well is might as well.
Words near may as well in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: may as well (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-may as well.ogg.
Cite this entry: “may as well.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/may_as_well. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.