Word.ws English Dictionary

oughteth

oughteth is the third-person singular simple present indicative of ought.

Meaning of ought

Verb

ought

  1. (auxiliary, dialectal, formal) Indicating duty or obligation.
    • I ought to vote in the coming election.
  2. (auxiliary, dialectal, formal) Indicating advisability or prudence.
    • You ought to always stand back from the edge of the platform.
    Synonyms:
    should
  3. (auxiliary, dialectal, formal) Indicating desirability.
    • He ought to read the book; it was very good.
    Synonyms:
    should
  4. (auxiliary, dialectal, formal) Indicating likelihood or probability.
    • We ought to arrive by noon if we take the motorway, shouldn't we?
    Synonyms:
    should

See all 5 meanings of ought

Origin of oughteth

Pseudo-loan from Middle English, derived from ought + -eth, an incorrect application of the archaic marker of the third-person singular present tense (-eth) to the present tense form of the verb ought.

Questions about oughteth

What is oughteth the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Oughteth is the third-person singular simple present indicative of ought.

Words near oughteth in the dictionary

  1. oughta
  2. oughten
  3. oughter
  4. Oughterard
  5. oughtest
  6. oughteth
  7. Oughtibridge
  8. oughties
  9. oughtism
  10. oughtn't
  11. oughtn't've

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oughteth (page history and authors); ought (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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