different between oat vs ought

English

Etymology

From Middle English ote, from Old English ?te, from Proto-Germanic *ait? (“swelling; gland; nodule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?eyd- (“to swell”). See English atter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?t, IPA^(key): /??t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /o?t/
• Homophone: ot-
• Rhymes: -??t

Noun

oat (countable and uncountable, plural oats)

1. (uncountable) Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.

2. (countable) Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.

3. (usually as plural) The seeds of the oat, a grain, harvested as a food crop.
   • 1991, Cornelia M. Parkinson, Cooking with Oats: Oat Bran, Oatmeal, and More, Storey Publishing (?ISBN), page 2:

     The point is, except in Scotland, people eat comparatively few oats. Scotland's another story, though you'll have to decide how seriously to take it. The way the story goes is that in eastern Scotland, the unmarried plowmen didn't eat anything but oats and milk, except for an occasional potato.

4. A simple musical pipe made of oat-straw.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• bran

Further reading

• oat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• AOT, ATO, OTA, Ota, TAO, Tao, To'a, tao, toa

Finnish

Noun

oat

1. Nominative plural form of oka.

Anagrams

• ota, tao

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English oughte, aughte, a?te, ahte, from Old English ?hte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English ?gan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe +? -t.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -??t
• (US) IPA^(key): /?t/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /?t/
• Homophone: aught

Verb

ought

1. (obsolete) simple past tense of owe

Verb

ought

1. (auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.

2. (auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence.

3. (auxiliary) Indicating desirability.

4. (auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability.

Usage notes

• Ought is an auxiliary verb; it takes a following verb as its complement. This following verb may appear either as a full infinitive (such as “to go”) or a bare infinitive (such as simple “go”), depending on region and speaker; the same range of meanings is possible in either case. Additionally, it's possible for ought not to take any complement, in which case a verb complement is implied, as in, “You really ought to [do so].”
• The negative of ought is either ought not (to) or oughtn't (to) (yet oughtn't've: oughtn't *(to) have)

Synonyms

• should (In all senses)

Translations

See also

• ought to
• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

Pronoun

ought

1. Alternative spelling of aught; anything
   • 1658, Joseph Hall, The Devout Soul, Or, Rules of Heavenly Devotion Also the Free Prisoner, Or, the Comfort of Restraint

     Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there […] where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoicings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul?

Adverb

ought (not comparable)

1. Alternative spelling of aught; at all, to any degree.

Noun

ought (plural oughts)

1. A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.

See also

• aught
• naught
• nought

References

• ought in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ought at OneLook Dictionary Search

Etymology 2

Noun

ought (plural oughts)

1. Alternative spelling of aught; cipher, zero, nought.

Anagrams

• tough

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ou?t, eawiht, aht

Etymology

From Old English ?ht, ?ht, shortening of ?wiht, ?wiht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?u?xt/, /au?xt/

Pronoun

ought

1. anything, everything
2. something

Descendants

• English: ought, aught, owt
• Scots: owt
• Yola: aught

References

• “ought, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.