oughtn't
AmericanUsage
See contraction, ought 1.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If those claims are true, oughtn’t the grievance go the other way?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
We can’t look away — and we oughtn’t, as she argued through the public display of her son’s body.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2023
“He oughtn’t be relieved of liability on the transparently false assertion that he believed his own self-serving fiction,” Bowman told me.
From Slate ● Jun. 13, 2022
“The presidency has only a certain amount of coinage to expend, and you oughtn’t to expend it on this,” said one.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 17, 2020
"You oughtn't to see this," Will muttered in my ear.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
