MUST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does must mean? 

• MUST (noun)
  The noun MUST has 3 senses:

1. a necessary or essential thing

2. grape juice before or during fermentation

3. the quality of smelling or tasting old or stale or mouldy

  Familiarity information: MUST used as a noun is uncommon.

• MUST (adjective)
  The adjective MUST has 1 sense:

1. highly recommended

  Familiarity information: MUST used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MUST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A necessary or essential thing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Context example:

seat belts are an absolute must

Hypernyms ("must" is a kind of...):

essential; necessary; necessity; requirement; requisite (anything indispensable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grape juice before or during fermentation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("must" is a kind of...):

grape juice (the juice of grapes)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of smelling or tasting old or stale or mouldy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

moldiness; must; mustiness

Hypernyms ("must" is a kind of...):

staleness (having lost purity and freshness as a consequence of aging)

Derivation:

musty (stale and unclean smelling)

musty (covered with or smelling of mold)

• MUST (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Highly recommended

Context example:

a book that is must reading

Similar:

essential (basic and fundamental)

 Context examples 

We must go shopping tomorrow afternoon, Meg.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If you do have a sweetheart or spouse, you must celebrate your love for each other.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Yes, and that is a factor which we must certainly not neglect.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Doing the scan can take a long time, and you must stay still.

(MRI Scans, NIH)

I must not lose one crawl or squirm if I am to get the most out of the ferment.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Cells are highly variable and specialized in both structure and function, though all must at some stage replicate proteins and nucleic acids, utilize energy, and reproduce themselves.

(Murine Cell Types, NCI Thesaurus)

I must ask you, Professor Challenger, to cease these ignorant and unmannerly interruptions.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once he crawled upon one that must have been asleep.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He cannot have been disposed of in so short a space; he must be still alive, he must have fled!

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)