might

• mite (eye dialect, informal)

• enPR: mīt, IPA^(key): /maɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: mite
• Rhymes: -aɪt

From Middle English myght, might (also maught, macht, maht), from Old English miht, mieht, meaht, mæht (“might, bodily strength, power, authority, ability, virtue, mighty work, miracle, angel”), from Proto-Germanic *mahtiz, *mahtuz (“might, power”), from Proto-Indo-European *mógʰtis, *megʰ- (“to allow, be able, help”), corresponding to Germanic *maganą + *-þiz. Cognate with Scots micht, maucht (“might”), North Frisian macht (“might, ability”), West Frisian macht (“might, ability”), Dutch macht (“might, power”), German Macht (“power, might”), Swedish makt (“might”), Norwegian makt (“power”), Icelandic máttur (“might”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (mahts). Related to may.

might (countable and uncountable, plural mights)

1. (countable, uncountable) Power, strength, force or influence held by a person or group.
   • 1969, {unattributed}, Journal of the United Service Institution of India, Volume 99

     "Since every nation considers itself right, peace lies in balancing the military mights of the possible rivals."

2. (uncountable) Physical strength or force.

   He pushed with all his might, but still it would not move.

3. (uncountable) The ability to do something. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

might (comparative mighter, superlative mightest)

1. (obsolete) Mighty; powerful.
2. (obsolete) Possible.

From Old English meahte and mihte, from magan, whence English may.

might (third-person singular simple present might, present participle -, simple past might, past participle -)

1. (auxiliary) Used to indicate conditional or possible actions.

   I might go to the party, but I haven't decided yet.

   • Bishop Joseph Hall

     The characterism of an honest man: He looks not to what he might do, but what he should.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

2. (auxiliary) simple past tense of may Used to indicate permission in past tense.

   He asked me if he might go to the party, but I haven't decided yet.

3. (auxiliary) simple past tense of may Used to indicate possibility in past tense.

   I thought that I might go the next day.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

4. Used to indicate a desired past action that was not done.
   • 17 June 2018, Barney Ronay, The Guardian, Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win:

     With 14 minutes gone Héctor Moreno might have scored, glancing a header too close to Neuer from a free-kick.

   Hey man, you might have warned me about the thunderstorm

• archaic second-person singular simple past - mightest
• nonstandard, archaic third-person singular simple past - mighteth

• could
• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions