Word.ws English Dictionary

may be

may be adverb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see may, be. Also the misspelling of maybe.

Adverb

may be

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see may, be.
    • The presence of potato starch in arrow root may be discovered by the microscope.1845, Andrew Ure, “ARROW ROOT”, in Recent Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: […], London: […] Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 10

Also used as

may be is also the misspelling of maybe.

Questions about may be

What does may be mean?
May be means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see may, be.
What part of speech is may be?
May be is an adverb.

Words near may be in the dictionary

  1. May apples
  2. may as well
  3. May Ball
  4. May Balls
  5. May Bank
  6. may be
  7. May beetle
  8. May beetles
  9. May blossom
  10. May blossoms
  11. May bug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: may be (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: “may be.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/may_be. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.