oughts
- 1Plural of ought.
The ledger was full of long rows of oughts.
He miscounted the oughts and wrote the wrong total.
Note
Two different nouns share this plural. One is the zero digit, a variant of aught and a cousin of nought, so a ledger can be full of oughts. The other is the moral noun: oughts are statements of what should be, set against what is, as when facts are weighed against oughts. The auxiliary verb ought never takes an -s, so oughts is always a noun.
- 2Alternative spelling of aughts.
Many of these fashions came back from the early oughts.
She spent most of the oughts living abroad.
Note
This decade takes its name from its zero. The tens digit of 1900–1909 or 2000–2009 is an ought, the zero digit whose plural is the plain plural oughts. It lives only in the plural, alongside eighties and nineties. Harry Hamilton Johnston lists it in that row in 1919: "the 'eighties, 'nineties, and 'oughts." John Maxtone-Graham's Liners to the Sun (2000) applies it to the new millennium's first decade, and noughties is its synonym.
oughts is a form of ought
ought, noun: A claim about how things should be, contrasted with a statement of how things actually are. Full entry
- Forms
- oughtoughts plural
- Spelling
- ought → oughts: add -s
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of oughts apart? Answer 2 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.