Word.ws English Dictionary

shouldn't

UK/ˈʃʊdənt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈʃɵdənt/

shouldn't verb: should not (negative auxiliary).

Verb

shouldn't

  1. Should not (negative auxiliary)
    • I shouldn't be telling you all this. It'll make you angry.1989 February 5, Colin Robinson, “You Dared Us To Dream That We Are Worth Wanting Each Other”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 29, page 8

Noun

shouldn't (plural shouldn'ts)

  1. (informal) Something that should not be done.
    • Being a list-o-maniac, I suggested we make a list of the "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts." So in the darkness of hazy sleep, I began to mentally prepare mine. The first item on the "should" side was easy: a sibling for our 3-year-old daughter.2008, Working Mother, volume 31, number 8, page 20

Forms of shouldn't

pluralshouldn'ts

Origin of shouldn't

From should + -n't.

Words formed from shouldn't

Phrases with shouldn't

Questions about shouldn't

What does shouldn't mean?
Shouldn't means should not (negative auxiliary).
What part of speech is shouldn't?
Shouldn't can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce shouldn't?
Shouldn't is pronounced /ˈʃʊdənt/ (UK).

Words near shouldn't in the dictionary

  1. shoulderstrap
  2. shoulderstraps
  3. shouldest
  4. shoulding
  5. shoulding on
  6. shouldn't
  7. shouldn't've
  8. shouldn'ts
  9. shouldna
  10. shouldnae
  11. shouldnt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shouldn't (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shouldn't.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shouldn't.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shouldn%27t. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.