may

CEFRA1

/meɪ/

modal verb · verb · noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

01
modal verb
Used to say that something is possible or allowed.
02
modal verb
Extra detail
To be able; can.

Examples

I may be antisocial, but it doesn't mean I don't talk to people.
I may give up soon and just nap instead.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 3
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 3

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

To be strong; to have power (over).
To be able to go.

noun

Extra meaning

The hawthorn bush or its blossoms.

More examples

In context

That may or may not be true.
may I sit there?
he may be lying

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The weather forecast says it blank rain heavily later today.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

But many times[…]we give way to passions we may resist and will not.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC,...
O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East, That I may backe to Athens by day-light […].
1600, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, III.3
The fire from Lindfield was coming down the grassy hillside to the right between the hedges of may.
1973, Patsy Adam Smith, The Barcoo Salute, Adelaide: Rigby, page 43
Soo it befelle in the moneth of May / quene Gueneuer called vnto her knyȝtes of the table round / and she gafe them warnynge that erly vpon the morowe she wold ryde on mayeng in to woodes & feldes besyde westmynstre. "So it befell in the month of May, Queen Guenever called unto her knights of the Table Round; and she gave them warning that early upon the morrow she would ride a-Maying into woods and fields beside Westminster."
1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XIX, Chapter i leaf 386v
In valleys green and still / Where lovers wander maying
1922, A. E. Housman, Last Poems, VII, lines 1-2

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Origin

modal verb

From Middle English mowen, mayen, moȝen, maȝen, from Old English magan, from Proto-West Germanic *magan, from Proto-Germanic *maganą, from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ-. Cognate with Dutch mag (“may”, first- and third-person singular of mogen (“to be able to, be allowed to, may”)), Low German mögen, German mag (“like”, first- and third-person singular of mögen (“to like, want, require”)), Swedish må, Icelandic mega, megum. See also might.