“Aught” or “Ought”—Which to use?

“Aught” or “Ought”

Overview

aught / ought are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term. 👇

Definitions

aught: NA

ought: NA

Pronunciation

aught: NA

ought: AO·t

Trends

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Examples in Context

Examples of “aught”

Examples of “ought”

…I don't know if you ought to do this thing.
…either in ethics, but it ought not to lag behind the…
Thus, the Court ought to give effect to the…
…it was not what it ought to be.
…closely linked with ours, it ought to have kept us better…
…theory, the peoples and revolutionaries ought to unite with the reactionary…
…theology wherein a special primacy ought to be granted to Peter's…
…note in his diary "we ought to reward the Arabs for…
…to "create a film which ought, in principle, to have caused…
Someone ought to be kicked".

(Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions drawn from WordNet.)

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