Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📅 A decade ✅ Should do
ought

ought

8 9.6
A decade like 1900 to 1909 or 2000 to 2009
  • noun
  • /ɔt/
translation icon : década de los 00

Examples

  • Let's think of what our children faced In two-ought-seven-six

    Nashville (1975)

  • Harvard graduates of 19-ought-seven, as you enter this new chapter in your lives, you can use your wisdom and your brains!

    Bad Kids of Crestview Academy (2017)

  • If we couldn't afford HSR in the boom times of the "oughts," we certainly can't now.

    Blog text (6)

  • The Vlad Taltos books of the oughts, by Steven Brust: I really liked Jhegaala.

    Blog text (19)

  • The early 2000s, often called the oughts, saw a rise in digital technology and social media.

  • Many films from the oughts reflected the changing cultural landscape of that decade.

  • Fashion trends in the oughts were characterized by bold colors and experimental styles.

Synonyms

1900s
vsought
27 2.2

A ten-year period from 1900 to 1909

includes that decade but also applies to the first decade of another century
aughts
vsought
  • US
7.6

Years that run from 2000 to 2009 at the start of a century

also covers that decade but refers to the earlier century's first decade

Idioms

no better than one ought to be
9.9

Acting in a way that people think is wrong

Surface Forms

ought singular
oughts plural

Etymology

Ought in 'the oughts' comes from an old word meaning 'zero' or 'nothing', the same idea you see in aught. So the 'oughts' are the years that have a '0' in them, like 1900–1909 or 2000–2009.