# most
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mōst, IPA: /ˈməʊst/
* (General American) enPR: mōst, IPA: /ˈmoʊst/
* (Canada) IPA: [ˈmoːst]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊst

### 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

* moste (obsolete)

#### Determiner

most
* superlative degree of much.
    The teams competed to see who could collect (the) most money.
    Most of Wales is ountainous.
* superlative degree of many: the comparatively largest number of (construed with the definite article)
    The team with the most points wins.
* 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)
* 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. […] ”
* To a great extent or degree; highly; very.
    This is a most unusual specimen.
** 1750, “Theodora”, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music)‎:Most cruel edict! Sure, thy generous soul, Septimius, abhors the dreadful task of persecution.
** 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 77:A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy!
** 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Palace of Green Porcelain”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, pages 114–115:Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a most strange, as for me it was a most fortunate, thing.
** 1922, Ruth Plumly Thompson, “The Last Giant”, in The Princess of Cozytown, P. F. Volland, page 80:“His song is most unpleasant,” said the King rubbing his head, “pray bid him cease,” and off went the secretary to argue with the wind.
* 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

* at most
* at the most
* at the very most
* backmost
* empty barrels make the most noise
* empty cans make the most noise
* empty vessels make the most noise
* empty vessels make the most sound
* foremost
* for the most part
* frontmost
* hindmost
* host with the most
* innermost
* lookers-on see most of the game
* make the most of
* -most
* most an end
* most favored nation
* most favoured nation
* most like
* mostly
* most muscular
* most of all
* most of the time
* most-perfect magic square
* most Rikki-Tik
* most significant bit
* most significant byte
* most valuable player
* most vexing parse
* most wanted
* one-size-fits-most
* outermost
* rearmost
* second most
* The Most Reverend

##### Related terms

* more

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Adjective

most (not comparable)
* (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
* 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

* (greater part): the majority

#### Noun

most (usually uncountable, plural mosts)
* (uncountable) The greatest amount.
    The most I can offer for the house is $150,000.
* (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.
* (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)
* (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

* Thesaurus:quantifier

### References

* “most”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* smot, TMOs, MTSO, mots, MOTs, SOTM, toms, Toms

## Catalan
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin mustum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈmost]

### Noun

most m (plural mosts or mostos)
* must (fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented)

### Further reading

* “most” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “most”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “most” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “most” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Czech
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmost]
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

most m inan (diminutive můstek or mostek or mostík)
* bridge

#### Derived terms

* mostní
* mostový
* můstek
* přemostit

#### See also

* lávka

### Further reading

* “most”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
* “most”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
* “most”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

## Dutch
### Etymology

From Latin mustum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɔst/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: most
* Rhymes: -ɔst
* Homophone: Most

### Noun

most m (uncountable, diminutive mostje n)
* 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)
* must (unfermented grape juice or wine)

## Hungarian
### Etymology

From the earlier ma (“now”), which in modern Hungarian means “today” + -st. For the suffix, compare valamelyest.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmoʃt]
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -oʃt

### Adverb

most
* now

#### Declension

It can be suffixed from its (otherwise folksy) variant mostan: mostantól (“from now on”), mostanra (“by now”), mostanig (“until now”), or the latter more commonly formed with -a-, mostanáig (“until now”):

#### Derived terms

* most már
* most ugrik a majom a vízbe
* mostan → mostanság

### References

* ↑ most in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)

### Further reading

* most in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

## Lower Sorbian
### Noun

most m inan (diminutive mosćik)
* Superseded spelling of móst.

#### Declension
## Middle English
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

most
* Alternative form of must

### Etymology 2
#### Verb

most
* second-person singular present indicative of moten (“to have to”)

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

From Middle Low German most, must, from Latin mustum.

### Noun

most m (definite singular mosten, indefinite plural moster, definite plural mostene)
* must, (unfermented) fruit juice, particularly grape juice

### References

* “most” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
* “most” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

From Middle Low German most, must, from Latin mustum.

### Noun

most m (definite singular mosten, indefinite plural mostar, definite plural mostane)
* must, (unfermented) fruit juice, particularly grape juice

### References

* “most” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Old Czech
### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mostъ.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (13th CE) /ˈmost/
* IPA: (15th CE) /ˈmost/

### Noun

most m inan
* bridge

#### Derived terms

* mostník

#### Descendants

* Czech: most

### Further reading

* Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “most”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

## Old English
### Verb

mōst
* second-person singular present indicative of mōtan

## Old High German
### Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *must.

### Noun

most m
* must

#### Descendants

* German: Most

## Polish
### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mȍstъ (“bridge”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɔst/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔst
* Syllabification: most

### Noun

most m inan (diminutive mościk, augmentative mościsko)
* bridge (building over a river or valley)

#### Derived terms

* mostowy
* prosto z mostu
* most powietrzny
* mostek
* mostne
* mostołódź
* mostowe
* mostowiec
* mostownica
* mostownictwo
* mostowniczy
* mościć impf
* palić za sobą mosty impf

### Further reading

* most in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* most in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Serbo-Croatian
### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mostъ (“bridge”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /môːst/

### Noun

mȏst m (Cyrillic spelling мо̑ст)
* bridge (construction or natural feature that spans a divide)

#### Derived terms

* mòstac
* mostàrina
* mòstić
* mòstiti

## Slovak
### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mostъ (“bridge”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [mɔst]
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

most m inan (relational adjective mostný or mostový, diminutive mostík or môstik)
* bridge

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “most”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

## Slovene
### Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *mostъ (“bridge”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /móːst/

### Noun

mọ̑st m inan
* bridge (construction or natural feature that spans a divide)

#### Inflection
### Further reading

* “most”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
* “most”, in Termania, Amebis
* See also the general references

## Volapük
### Noun

most (nominative plural mosts)
* monster

#### Declension

$^1$ status as a case is disputed $^2$ in later, non-classical Volapük only