must - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (2024)

• (stressed) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌst/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /məs(t)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• hom*ophone: mussed
• Rhymes: -ʌst

From Middle English moste ("must", literally, "had to", the past tense of Middle English moten (“to have to”)), from Old English mōste (“had to”), 1st & 3rd person singular past tense of mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, must, may”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną. Cognate with Dutch moest (“had to”), German musste (“had to”), Swedish måste (“must, have to, be obliged to”). More at mote.

• mus' (dialectal)

must (third-person singular simple present must, no present participle, simple past must, no past participle)

1. (modal auxiliary, defective) To do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a failure or negative consequence.

   You must arrive in class on time. (the requirement is an imperative)

   This door handle must be rotated fully. (the requirement is a directive, necessary to operate the handle)

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,[…] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker,[…], →OCLC, Acts 9:6:

     Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

2. (modal auxiliary, defective) To do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate.

   If it has rained all day, it must be very wet outside.

   You picked one of two, and it wasn't the first: it must have been the second.

3. (modal auxiliary, defective) Used to indicate that something is very likely, probable, or certain to be true.

   The children must be asleep by now.

• (auxiliary, to do as a requirement): Compare with weaker auxiliary verb should, indicating mere intent for the predicate’s execution; and stronger auxiliary verb will, indicating that the negative consequence will be unusually severe.
• (auxiliary, to do with certainty): Compare with weaker auxiliary verb should, indicating a strong probability of the predicate’s execution.
• The past tense of “must” is also “must”. In main clauses, this use of the past tense is almost always literary (see King James Bible, Leiber, and Alcott quotations at Citations:must). In subordinate clauses, it is more common: He knew what he must do. Otherwise, the past sense is usually conveyed by had to. It is possible to use was bound to for the past also. For this reason, have to and be bound to are also used as alternatives to must in the present and future.
• The principal verb, if easily supplied (especially go), may be omitted. In modern usage this is mainly literary (see Housman and Tolkien quotations at Citations:must).
• Must is unusual in its negation: must not still expresses a definite certainty or requirement. Need and have to, on the other hand, are negated in the usual manner. Compare:

You must not read that book. (It is necessary that you not read that book.)

You need not read that book. / You do not have to read that book. (It is not necessary that you read that book.)

• The second-person singular (thou being the subject) no longer adds -est (as it did in Old English).

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

must (plural musts)

1. Something that is mandatory or required.

   Synonyms: imperative, necessity

   Antonym: no-no

   Hyponyms: must-do, must-have, must-see

   If you're trekking all day, a map is a must.

• → French: must

From Middle English must, from Old English must and Old French must, most, both from Latin mustum.

must (countable and uncountable, plural musts)

1. The property of being stale or musty.
2. Something that exhibits the property of being stale or musty.
4. Fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented, usually from grapes.

   • c. 1874, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ovid in Exile:

     No sweet grape lies hidden here in the shade of its vine-leaves,
     No fermenting must fills and o'erflows the deep vats.

• must weight

must (third-person singular simple present musts, present participle musting, simple past and past participle musted)

1. (transitive) To make musty.
2. (intransitive) To become musty.

• must on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Persian مست (mast, “drunk, inebriated”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭮𐭲 (mast).

must (countable and uncountable, plural musts)

1. Alternative form of musth
   • 1936, George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, an essay in the magazine New Writing:

     It was not, of course, a wild elephant, but a tame one which had gone ‘must’.

• MTUs, UMTS, smut, stum, tums

From English must, from Old English mōste, from the past tense of Proto-West Germanic *mōtan, whence native moeten.

• IPA^(key): /mʏst/

• Audio:

  (file)

mustm (plural musts)

1. a must (necessity, prerequisite)

   Synonym: moetje

   Een rijbewijs is een must als je taxichauffeur wil worden.

   A driver's license is a must if you want to be a taxi driver.

From Proto-Finnic *musta. Cognate with Finnish musta, Veps must and Livonian mustā. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *mus-ta-, compare Norwegian Bokmål must (“steam, fume, mist”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈmust/
• Hyphenation: must

must (genitive musta, partitive musta, comparative mustem, superlative kõige mustem or mustim)

1. black (color)

   Lindude sulestik on must, aga tiibadel märkame valget laiku.

   The plumage of the birds is black, but you can notice a white spot on the wings.

2. Dark, without light, illumination (and poorly visible).

   Mustad sügisööd.

   Dark autumn nights.

   1. Without snow.

      Maa on must ja kelgutada ei saa.

      The ground is without snow and you can't go sledding.

3. Having dark skin.

   Must poiss muudkui naeris.

   The black kid kept laughing.

4. Dirty, unclean, full of garbage and/or grime.

   Synonym: räpane

   Mu riided said mustaks ja pidin neid pesema.

   My clothes became dirty and I had to wash them.

   1. Not requiring special skills, making something or someone dirty.

      Hauakaevaja must töö.

      The dirty job of a gravedigger.

5. Grim, dreary, hopeless, without any (good) solution.

   Meeleolu on must.

   The mood around here is dark.

   1. Illegal, unofficial, disgraceful.

      Kartsin, et mu mustad teod tulevad päevavalgele.

      I feared, that my dark acts will come to light.

must (genitive musta, partitive musta)

1. The color black.

   Halli värvi kombineerdes musta ja valgega suurendad enda usaldatavust.

   By combining gray with black and white, you increase your own reliability.

2. Something colored in black.

   Otsustasime, kumb mängib valgete, kumb mustadega.

   We decided, who plays with whites (white chesspieces), and who plays with blacks (black chesspieces).

3. A person having dark skin.

   Meie tulevikulootus ei ole enam lapsed, vaid hoopis mustad.

   Our hopes for the future aren't our children anymore, but blacks.

• valge

• mustus
• mustuma
• mustendama
• mustenma
• mustama

• must auk
• mustvalge
• musträstas
• süsimust
• must sõstar

Borrowed from English must.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑst/, [ˈmɑ̝s̠t]

must (colloquial)

1. must (something mandatory or required)

   Se on ihan must!

   It's a must!

• Not inflected.

• pakko; pakollinen juttu

• “must”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01

A variant of musta < minusta (“of me”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmust/, [ˈmus̠t]
• Rhymes: -ust
• Syllabification^(key): must

must

1. (colloquial) elative singular of mä

   Must on tärkeetä, että.. / Minusta on tärkeää, että... (standard)

   I think it is important that...

Borrowed from English must.

• IPA^(key): /mœst/

• Audio:

  (file)

mustm (plural musts)

1. (informal) that which is compulsory; an obligation; duty; must

   Synonyms: essentiel, impératif

   • 2003, Élisabeth Badinter, Fausse route, Odile Jacob, →ISBN:

     Comme le fait remarquer Daphne Patai, Loïs Pineau, contrairement à Catherine MacKinnon, postule que les femmes sont tout à fait capables de donner un consentement explicite et verbal sans en rester au geste et au sous-entendu. Non seulement l’explicitation n’est pas un problème, mais c’est un must.

     As Daphne Patai points out, Loïs Pineau, unlike Catherine MacKinnon, postulates that women are entirely capable of giving explicit and verbal consent without relying on gesture and insinuation. Not only is explanation not a problem, but it's a must.

2. (often humorous) must-have (item that one must own)

   • 2014, Annie Ernaux, Regarde les lumières mon amour, Seuil, →ISBN, page 62:

     La fête des Mères s’affiche partout dans le centre commercial. À Auchan, un espace lui est réservé, rempli de robots, d’aspirateurs, de machines à café – le must apparemment – parfums, etc.

     Mother's Day is on display everywhere in the mall. At Auchan, a space is reserved for it, filled with appliances, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers — the apparent must-have — perfumes, etc.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmuʃt]
• Hyphenation: must
• Rhymes: -uʃt

must (usually uncountable, plural mustok)

1. must (sweet fresh grape juice that has not fermented yet)

• must in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifthed., 1992: →ISBN

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

must

1. black

• most, moste, moust, muste

From Old English must and Old French must, most, both from Latin mustum.

• IPA^(key): /must/

must (uncountable)

1. must (wine that is not fully fermented)
2. (rare, with qualifier) fruit juice

• English: must

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

Inherited from Latin mustum, from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mews- (“damp”).

mustn (plural musturi)

1. unfermented wine; grape or other fruit juice
2. must (of grapes)

• mustos
• mustăreață

• zeamă, suc

From Old Norse muster, moster, from Latin mustum.

• IPA^(key): /mɵst/

mustc (uncountable)

2. (drink made from) fruit or berry juice (that has been prevented from fermenting)
3. a kind of soft drink, more commonly known as julmust

• must on the Swedish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^sv

• must in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• must in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• must in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• stum, tums

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

must

1. black

• musteta
• Mustmägi
• mustsil'mäine
• mustverine

must

1. black

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “чёрный”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[2], Petrozavodsk: Periodika

must (nominative plural musts)

1. must (new wine; sweet cider)

From Proto-Finnic *musta.

must (genitive musta, partitive musta)

1. black (colour)