to
UK/təʊ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
India/t̪oː/
to particle: a particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive. Also the misspelling of too.
Particle (1)
to
- A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.
- I want to leave.
- He asked me what to do.
- As above, with the verb implied.
- "Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed."
- If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to.
- Used to indicate an obligation on the part of, or a directive given to, the subject.
- You are to go to the store and buy a bottle of milk.
Conjunction
to
- In order to.
- I went to the shops to buy some bread.
Preposition
to
- In the direction of; towards.
- She looked to the heavens.
- Indicating destination or final position: In the direction of, so as to arrive at or reach.
- We are walking to the shop.
- The water came right to the top of this wall.
- Used to indicate the target or recipient of an action.
- I gave the book to him.
- I spoke to him earlier.
- So as to contact, press against, impact, etc.
- I fixed the notice to the wall.
- Put your shoulder to the door.
- So as to become or reach: indicating a terminal state resulting from an action.
- His face was beaten to a pulp.
- I sang my baby to sleep.
- So as to bring about or elicit (an effect or outcome).
- He made several bad-taste jokes to groans from the audience.
- I tried complaining, but it was to no effect.
- Used after an adjective to indicate its application.
- similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking.
- Indicating a degree or level reached.
- It was to a large extent true.
- We manufacture these parts to a very high tolerance.
- Used to describe what something consists of or contains.
- Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it.
- There's a lot of sense to what he says.
- Denotes the end of a range.
- It takes 2 to 4 weeks to process typical applications.
- As a.
- With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); took her to wife (took her as a wife); was sold to slave (was sold as a slave).
- Used to indicate a ratio or comparison; compared to, as against.
- one to one = 1:1
- ten to one = 10:1.
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- Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation.
- Three squared or three to the second power is nine.
- Three to the power of two is nine.
- Preceding (the stated hour).
- What's the time? – It's quarter to four in the afternoon (or 3:45 pm).
- Antonyms:
- past
- With implied hour.
- It’s quarter to (3:45, or 4:45, or whatever time ending in 45 would make the most sense)
- According to.
- Our holiday did not go to plan.
- At.
- Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y.
- Where are you to?
- Used more-or-less idiomatically with various verbs: keep to the left, agree to the proposal, attend to the matter, etc. See the individual entries.
Adverb
to (not comparable)
- Toward a closed, touching, or engaging position.
- Please push the door to.
- He went in his room, pushed the door to, without fastening the latch.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC
- Into the wind.
Particle (2)
to
- A filler word common amongst urban Indians.
- I am to so bored right now.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: TO
TO
Noun capitalized: TO
TO (plural TOs)
Verb capitalized: TO
TO (third-person singular simple present TOs or TO's, present participle TOing or TO'ing, simple past and past participle TOd or TOed or TO'd or TO'ed)
- to organize a tournament, to be a TO
- TOing
Proper noun (2) capitalized: To
To
- A surname.
Also used as
to is also the misspelling of too.
to meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Arabic
to in Hindi
- used after certain adjectives to indicate a relationship
- से se
- time: preceding
- तक tak
- in the direction of, and arriving at
- ... को ... ko
to in Tamil
- to indicate result of action
- வரை varai
- end of range
- வரை varai
to in Urdu
- in the direction of, and arriving at
- ... کو ... kō
to in Arabic
- infinitive-marker
- أَنّ ʔann
- used to indicate the indirect object
- لِ li
- in the direction of, and arriving at
- إِلَى ʔilā, عَلَى ʕalā, لـ le
More languagesFewer languages
- to in Malay
- untuk, nisbah, ke, kepada
- to in Indonesian
- banding, sampai, kurang, ke
- to in Persian
- ـدن -dan, ـتن -tan, به be, بِه be
- to in Thai
- เพื่อ pʉ̂ʉa, ยัง yang
- to in Vietnamese
- để, cho, kém, đến
- to in Myanmar
- ကို kui
Examples of to in a sentence
- I have places to go and people to see.
- Who am I to criticise? I've done worse things myself.
- Precisely to get away from you was why I did what I did.
- I need some more books to read and friends to go partying with.
- Those to avoid death ended up being exiled.
- He fled to India, never to return.
Synonyms of to
Antonyms
Forms of to
| Particle | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | ter |
| alternative form | t' |
| alternative form | 2 |
| Noun | |
| plural | TOs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | TOs |
| third-person singular present | TO's |
| present participle | TOing |
| present participle | TO'ing |
| past participle | TOd |
| past | TOd |
| past participle | TOed |
| past | TOed |
| past participle | TO'd |
| past | TO'd |
| past participle | TO'ed |
| past | TO'ed |
| alternative form | T.O. |
Origin of to
From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, from Proto-Indo-European *de ~ *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe, te (“to”), German zu (“to”), West Frisian ta (“to”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ndaj (“towards”), Irish do (“to, for”), Breton da (“to, for”), Welsh i (“to, for”), Russian до (do, “to”). Doublet of too.
Borrowed from Hindi तो (to).
Borrowed from Cantonese 杜 (dou6), 陶 (tou4), 塗／涂 (tou4), 屠 (tou4), etc.
Words formed from to
- finna
- gonna
- gotta
- hafta
- oughta
- supposta
- usta
- wanna
- hand-to-mouth
- hitherto
- how-to
- lean-to
- many-to-many
- many-to-one
- nice-to-have
- one-to-many
- one-to-one
- onto
- talking-to
- telling-to
- thereto
- thitherto
- to a hair
- to a man
- to and fro
- to-be
- tocome
- to-come
- today
- to-do
- to-draw
- to hand
- to spare
- toward
- unto
- untoward
- uptodate
- whereto
- whitherto
Phrases with to
183 more phrasesFewer phrases
- fix to
- for to
- get to
- got to
- had to
- has to
- how to
- Iwo To
- lay to
- led to
- lie to
- out to
- put to
- ran to
- run to
- saw to
- see to
- set to
- tie to
- to a T
- to day
- to God
- to let
- to the
- to wit
- use to
- way to
- woe to
- 9 to 5s
- A to Zs
- beat to
- bows to
- call to
- came to
- deal to
- down to
- fall to
- fell to
- gear to
- gets to
- goes to
- gone to
- hang to
- have to
- held to
- hold to
- hove to
- hung to
- jump to
- K to 10
- K to 12
- keep to
- kept to
- kick to
- laid to
- lain to
- lays to
- lead to
- lies to
- like to
- look to
- mean to
- move to
- need to
- next to
- nuts to
- over to
- play to
- puts to
- runs to
- seen to
- sees to
- sets to
- snap to
- step to
- take to
- talk to
- tied to
- ties to
- to arms
- to bits
- to boot
- to burn
- to come
- to date
- to heel
- to hell
- to many
- to much
- to time
- took to
- turn to
- used to
- want to
- went to
- about to
- be on to
- beats to
- bound to
- bowed to
- bring to
- calls to
- cling to
- close to
- clung to
- comes to
- deals to
- dealt to
- drank to
- drink to
- drunk to
- falls to
- fixed to
- fixes to
- froze to
- gears to
- given to
- hangs to
- holds to
- hoven to
- is on to
- jerry to
- jumps to
- keeps to
- kicks to
- leads to
- liked to
- looks to
- lying to
- means to
- meant to
- moved to
- moves to
- needs to
- ought to
- owing to
- party to
- plays to
- prior to
- prone to
- round to
- sling to
- slung to
- snaps to
- snapt to
- so as to
- speak to
- spoke to
- stand to
- steps to
- stick to
- stood to
- stuck to
- taken to
- takes to
- talks to
- to a "T"
- to a tee
- to blame
- to death
- to order
- to scale
- to taste
- to the T
- to wisse
- turns to
- tying to
- up to 11
- accd'g to
- add up to
- answer to
- attend to
- beaten to
- bowing to
- brings to
- broach to
- buckle to
- called to
- clings to
- closer to
- coming to
- cotton to
- drinks to
Words that rhyme with to
Questions about to
- What does to mean?
- To means a particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.
- What is to in Hindi?
- To in Hindi is से (se), तक (tak), ... को (... ko). See To meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use to in a sentence?
- I have places to go and people to see.
- What part of speech is to?
- To can be a particle, a conjunction, a preposition or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce to?
- To is pronounced /t̪oː/ (India).
Words near to in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: to (page history and authors); TO (page history and authors); To (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:
Cite this entry: “to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.