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most

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Most, móst, mōst, mošt, -most, and мост

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English most, moste, from Old English mǣst, māst, from Proto-Germanic *maistaz, *maist. Cognate with Scots mast, maist (“most”), Saterland Frisian maast (“most”), West Frisian meast (“most”), Dutch meest (“most”), German meist (“most”), Danish and Swedish mest (“most”), Icelandic mestur (“most”).

Alternative forms

Determiner

most

  1. superlative degree of much.
    The teams competed to see who could collect (the) most money.
    I spent most time in Rome because most of Venice is flooded.
  2. superlative degree of many: the comparatively largest number of (construed with the definite article)
    The team with the most points wins.
  3. superlative degree of many: the majority of; more than half of (construed without the definite article)
    Most bakers and dairy farmers have to get up early.
    Winning was not important for most participants.
Synonyms
  • (superlative of much): more than half of (in meaning, not grammar), almost all
  • (superlative of many): the majority of (in meaning, not grammar)
Translations

Adverb

most (not comparable)

  1. Forms the superlative of many adjectives.
    Antonym: least
    This is the most important example.
    Correctness is most important.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 77:
      With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […] ”
  2. To a great extent or degree; highly; very.
    This is a most unusual specimen.
  3. superlative degree of much
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary Problems”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

most (not comparable)

  1. (slang, dated) The greatest; the best.
    • 1978 September 14, Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey, Bronte Woodard, directed by Randal Kleiser, Grease‎ (film), spoken by Patty Simcox (Susan Buckner):
      PATTY:They announced this year's nominees for student council. And guess who's up for vice-president? Me! Isn't that the most to say the least?

Pronoun

most

  1. The greater part of a group, especially a group of people.
    Most want the best for their children.
    The peach was juicier and more flavourful than most.
Synonyms

Noun

More information The Tea room(+) is discussing this entry at the moment. ...

most (usually uncountable, plural mosts)

  1. (uncountable) The greatest amount.
    The most I can offer for the house is $150,000.
  2. (countable, uncountable) The greater part.
    Most of the penguins were friendly and curious.
    Most of the rice was spoiled.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 46:
      At half-past nine on this Saturday evening the parlor of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for the select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:
      The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. […] The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.
    • 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:
      Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.
  3. (countable) A record-setting amount.
    • 2001, George Barna, Real Teens: A Contemporary Snapshot of Youth Culture, →ISBN, page 15:
      Along with their massive size will come other “mosts”: they will likely be the longest living, the best educated, the wealthiest and the most wired/ wireless.
    • 2002, John Gregory Selby, Virginians at War: The Civil War Experiences of Seven Young Confederates, →ISBN, page xvii:
      Virginia had a number of "mosts” that made it appealing, if not representative of all Confederate states: the most citizens among the Southern states; the most slaves; the most men under arms; the most famous Southern generals; the most fighting within its borders; the most divided by the war (what other Southern state lost a quarter of its territory and saw a new state created out of that former territory?); and the most damaged by the war.
    • 2007, Joe Moscheo, The Gospel Side of Elvis, →ISBN:
      The record of Elvis' achievement is truly remarkable; his list of “firsts” and “mosts” is probably without parallel in music and entertainment history.
Usage notes
  • In the sense of record, used when the positive denotation of best does not apply.
Translations

Etymology 2

Reduction of almost.

Adverb

most (not comparable)

  1. (informal, chiefly US) Almost.
    • 1998, Bill Zehme, The Way You Wear Your Hat: And the Lost Art of Livin' (page 181)
      A well-daiquiried redhead eyed him from across the room at Jilly's one night in 1963 — although it could have been most any night ever […]
    • 2000, Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album, →ISBN, page 159:
      "We walked there most every day after school."
    • 2011, Charlotte Maclay, Wanted: A Dad to Brag About, →ISBN:
      “Can't be all that bad if Luke likes it. Most everywhere has air-conditioning, he says.”
Usage notes

This use of the word must precede a noun phrase and is restricted to positive polarity. One would not say  most nobody understands this or  I most fell down climbing up the stairs.

Translations

See also

References

  • “most”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin mustum.

Pronunciation

Noun

most m (plural mosts or mostos)

  1. must (fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented)

Derived terms

Further reading

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Czech

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cs

Etymology

Inherited from Old Czech most, from Proto-Slavic *mostъ (“bridge”).

Pronunciation

Noun

most m inan (diminutive můstek or mostek or mostík)

  1. bridge

Declension

Declension of most (hard masculine inanimate)
More information singular, plural ...

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin mustum.

Pronunciation

Noun

most m (uncountable, diminutive mostje n)

  1. must (unfermented or partially fermented mashed grapes or rarely other fruits, an early stage in the production of wine)

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin mustum.

Noun

most m (plural mosts)

  1. must (unfermented grape juice or wine)

Hungarian

Lower Sorbian

Middle English

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Old Czech

Old English

Old High German

Polish

Serbo-Croatian

Slovak

Slovene

Volapük

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