Most
determinerThe greatest in amount, number, or degree; the majority of.
How to spell most
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce most
What does most mean?
- determinerThe greatest in amount, number, or degree; the majority of.
Most in a sentence
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Most of the staff agreed to the new schedule.
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She spent most of her savings on the deposit.
Where does most come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English superlative mǣst, meaning 'greatest in amount or degree'. It belongs to a small family of irregular comparatives and superlatives alongside 'more' and the now-vanished positive form, and all trace back to a Germanic root shared with Old Norse mestr and Old High German meist. The word literally answered the question 'which is the greatest quantity?', and from that quantitative sense it broadened into the everyday meanings we use today, such as 'the majority of' or 'to the highest degree'. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable across more than a thousand years, smoothing only from mǣst to the modern most. Because it is short, common, and phonetically regular, it almost never troubles a writer, which is unusual for a word this old.
How the word is built
- most (Old English mǣst, superlative of micel 'much/great')
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