Synonyms for ought
ɔtought

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.7 / 6 votes

1. ought

   One ought to do that which he is under moral obligation or in duty bound to do. Ought is the stronger word, holding most closely to the sense of moral obligation, or sometimes of imperative logical necessity; should may have the sense of moral obligation or may apply merely to propriety or expediency, as in the proverb, "The liar should have a good memory," i. e., he will need it. Ought is sometimes used of abstractions or inanimate things as indicating what the mind deems to be imperative or logically necessary in view of all the conditions; as, these goods ought to go into that space; these arguments ought to convince him; should in such connections would be correct, but less emphatic. Compare DUTY.

   Synonyms:
   should

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "ought":

   should, must, would

How to pronounce ought?

How to say ought in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use ought in a sentence?

1. Stephen Leacock:

   What we call creative work, ought not to be called work at all, because it isn't. I imagine that Thomas Edison never did a day's work in his last fifty years.

2. Adam Schiff:

   I don’t think we can exclude the possibility without knowing more of the facts, we have asked for an assessment in the intelligence community of the Mar-a-Lago documents. I think we ought to get that same assessment of the documents found in the [Penn Biden Center] as well as the home of President Biden.

3. Jeremy Corbyn:

   We need to be very careful. Democracy is the issue, and democracy ought to be the means by which we decide these issues, rather than secret negotiations resulting in a fait accompli being presented to us.

4. Thomas Jefferson:

   No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

5. Jim McGovern:

   If we have evidence that countries are not complying with U.S. law, that ought to be enough to say we sell these weapons to them no more. Period. End of story.