How do you use the word "ought" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "ought": You look tired. You ought to rest for an hour or two. I think that you ought to apologize to her.

Ought Meaning

/ɔːt/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbsimple past of owe

verbIndicating duty or obligation.

Sentence Examples

You look tired. You ought to rest for an hour or two.

I think that you ought to apologize to her.

CEFR Practice Quiz

You ____ to apologize for your rude behavior at the party.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

You ____ to apologize to your colleague for the misunderstanding before it becomes a bigger issue.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe + -t. Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “capable of, liable”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"There was a certayne lender / which had two detters / the one ought five hondred pence / and the other fifty." — 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke vij:[41], folio lxxxvj, recto:

"[…]witneſſe Ariſtippus, who being vrged with the affection he ought his children, as proceeding from his loynes, began to ſpeake and ſpit[…]." — 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Friendship”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 90:

"My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price." — 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

"Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there […] where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoicings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul?" — 1658, Joseph Hall, The Devout Soul, Or, Rules of Heavenly Devotion Also the Free Prisoner, Or, the Comfort of Restraint:

"There are value judgments that are not reducible to observable matters of fact, and there are oughts that cannot be construed as hypothetical and, therefore, cannot be converted into statements of fact." — 1996, Mortimer Jerome Adler, The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense:

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