to

• (dialectal) ter
• (contraction) t'
• (abbreviation) 2

From Middle English to (“to”), from Old English tō (“to”), from Proto-Germanic *tō, *ta (“to”), from Proto-Indo-European *de, *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe (“to”), German zu (“to”), West Frisian ta (“to”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ndaj (“towards”), Irish do (“to, for”), Breton da (“to, for”), Welsh i (“to, for”), Russian до (do, “to”).

• Audio

  (file)

Stressed

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tuː/, [tʰu̟ː], enPR: to͞o
• (US) IPA^(key): /tu/, [tʰu̟], enPR: to͞o
• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /tʉː/, [tʰʉː]
• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: too, two

Unstressed

• (US) IPA^(key): /tə/, /tʊ/
  • (after a vowel) IPA^(key): [ɾə], [ɾʊ]

to

1. A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.

   I want to leave.

   He asked me what to do.

   I don’t know how to say it.

   I have places to go and people to see.

   • 1711, Alexander Pope:

     To err is human, to forgive divine.

   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 3, Scene 1:

     To be, or not to be: that is the question: / […]

   • 2010 July, Associated Press, headline :

     Odds are, BP to get new CEO this year

   • 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport‎:

     To that end, the home supporters were in good voice to begin with, but it was Newcastle who started the game in the ascendancy, with Barton putting a diving header over the top from Jose Enrique's cross.

2. As above, with the verb implied.

   "Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed."

   If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to.

3. A particle used to create phrasal verbs.

   I have to do laundry today.

to

1. Indicating destination: In the direction of, and arriving at.

   We are walking to the shop.

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

     Driven by a perceived political need to adopt a hard-line stance, Mr. Cameron’s coalition government has imposed myriad new restrictions, the aim of which is to reduce net migration to Britain to below 100,000.

2. Used to indicate purpose.

   He devoted himself to education.

   They drank to his health.

3. Used to indicate result of action.

   His face was beaten to a pulp.

4. Used after an adjective to indicate its application.

   similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking.

5. (obsolete) As a.

   With God to friend (with God as a friend);   with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe);   lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice);   took her to wife (took her as a wife);   was sold to slave (was sold as a slave).

6. (arithmetic) Used to indicate a ratio or comparison.

   one to one = 1:1

   ten to one = 10:1.

   I have ten dollars to your four.

   • 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:

     In total, the Reds had 28 shots to their opponent's nine, and 15 corners to the Baggies' three.

7. (arithmetic) Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation.

   Three squared or three to the second power is nine.

   Three to the power of two is nine.

   Three to the second is nine.

8. Used to indicate the indirect object.

   I gave the book to him.

9. (time) Preceding.

   ten to ten = 9:50; We're going to leave at ten to (the hour).

10. Used to describe what something consists of or contains.

    Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it.

    There's a lot of sense to what he says.

11. (Canada, Britain, Newfoundland, West Midlands) At.

    Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y.

In the sense of "as a", it is a fossil word (Standard English only), found usually only in set phrases like: "to take a woman to wife", "to have someone to friend", "to have something to birthright" etc.. In northern dialects, where it is rare, but still in common use, it is often used in combination with with as in: an idiot with a whore to wife; a shrew with an asshole to man; a loser with shit to job; a ghetto girl with a shit hole to home.

• at

to (not comparable)

1. Toward a closed, touching or engaging position.

   Please push the door to.

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 12

     He went in his room, pushed the door to, without fastening the latch.

2. (nautical) Into the wind.
3. Misspelling of too.

• (toward a closed, touching or engaging position): closed, shut

• (toward a closed, touching or engaging position): open, ajar

• come to
• heave to
• lean-to
• set-to
• to and fro

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:to.

• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

• OT, ot-

to

1. sago (tree)

From Latin tuus.

to

1. your

• tuyu

to

1. water

• Sharon Hargus, Wisuwit’en Grammar: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology (2007), page 43

to

1. water

• Naoyoshi Ogawa, English-Favorlang vocabulary (2003)
• S. Tsuchida, A Comparative Vocabulary of Austronesian Languages of Sinicized Ethnic Groups in Taiwan, Part I: Western Taiwan, Memoirs of the Faculty of Letters, No. 7 (1982)

From Proto-Bahnaric *tɔʔ, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *tɔʔ. Cognates include Vietnamese đó, Khmer ដ៏ (dɑɑ).

• IPA^(key): /tɔː/

to

1. that, there

to

1. stiff porridge

First attested 1575, borrowed from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos)[1]. Compare the doublet tro, inherited through a Vulgar Latin variant.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈtɔ/

to m (plural tons)

1. (music) tone (specific pitch)
2. (linguistics) tone (pitch of a word)
3. tone or shade of a color

• IPA^(key): [ˈto]

• audio

  (file)

to n

1. it, this, that

From Latin tuus. Compare Italian tuo, Romanian tău, Friulian to, French ton, Spanish tu.

to m (feminine toa)

1. your; second-person masculine singular possessive pronoun

• mi
• nuester
• vestro

From Old Norse tveir, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ (“two”).

• IPA^(key): /toː/, [tˢoːˀ]

to

1. (cardinal) two

From Old Norse þvá (“wash”), from Proto-Germanic *þwahaną.

• IPA^(key): /toː/, [tˢoːˀ]

to (imperative to, infinitive at to, present tense tor, past tense toede, perfect tense har toet)

1. (dated) wash

to (accusative singular to-on, plural to-oj, accusative plural to-ojn)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter T.

• (Latin-script letter names) litero; a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, u, ŭo, vo, zo

to

1. antelope
2. (anatomy) ear
3. father-in-law
4. mortar
5. mountain

to

1. to crush
2. to pound

Abbreviation of torstai ("Thursday").

• IPA^(key): /ˈto/, [ˈt̪o̞]

to

1. Thu (abbreviation of Thursday)

From Latin tuus.

to (second-person singular possessive of masculine singular, of feminine singular tô, of masculine plural tiei, of feminine plural tôs)

1. (used attributively) your, thy; of yours, of thine

   che al sedi santifiât il to nom, che al vegni il to ream, — "Your kingdom come, your will be done," (third and fourth sentences of Lord's Prayer)

2. (used predicatively) yours, thine
3. (used substantively) yours, thine; the thing belonging to you/ thee

• lôr
• gno
• nestri
• so
• vuestri

to

1. feminine definite article

   Mutu to ― The woman

• le

to

1. language

• Mary E. Kropp Dakubu, The Languages of Ghana

• IPA^(key): /to(ː)/

to

1. a body of water, such as a lake or ocean

• The Phonology of the Hupa Language, part 1: The Individual Sounds, volume 5, by Roland Burrage Dixon, Samuel Alfred Barrett, Washington Matthews, Bill Ray (using the older orthography "tō")
• Victor Golla, Hupa Language Dictionary Second Edition (1996), page 105 (to)

to

1. (demonstrative) this (thing)

to

1. eye

• Čestmír Loukotka, ‎Johannes Wilbert (editor), Classification of South American Indian Languages (1968, Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California), page(s) 162

to

1. Rōmaji transcription of と
2. Rōmaji transcription of ト

• tū

to

1. water

• Franz Boas, Pline Early Goddard, Vocabulary of an Athapascan dialect of the State of Washington, IJAL volume III, pages 39-45 (1924-1925)

to

1. that; accusative singular masculine form of tas
2. with that; instrumental singular masculine form of tas
3. of that; genitive plural masculine form of tas
4. that; accusative singular feminine form of tas
5. with that; instrumental singular feminine form of tas
6. of that; genitive plural feminine form of tas

to

1. that; genitive singular masculine form of tas

From French tu sg (“you”, informal).

to

1. you (singular), thou

   To té paʼlé gra. / To te pale gra.

   You spoke with an accent. (literally: "You had spoken thick.")

• IPA^(key): [tɔ]

to n

1. this

to

1. nominative neuter singular of ten
2. accusative neuter singular of ten

From French tu

to (objective twa, formal ou)

1. you (second-person singular nominative personal pronoun)

From Old Norse tvá, accusative case of tveir, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

• IPA^(key): /tuː/

to

1. (cardinal) two

• “to” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse tvá, accusative case of tveir, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

• IPA^(key): /tuː/

to

1. (cardinal) two

• todelt
• todimensjonal
• tospråkleg
• toåring

• “to” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

to

1. that (which is male)

• ta
• te
• tu

From Proto-Germanic *tō, *ta (“to”), from Proto-Indo-European *de, *do (“to”). Cognate with Old Saxon tō (“to”), Old High German zuo (“to”), Old Irish do.

• IPA^(key): /toː/

tō

1. to, into
2. at
3. (grammar) used to mark the infinitive (supine) of the verb

   tō drīfenne (“to drive”)

tō

1. besides
2. in addition, also, too; moreover
3. to an excessive degree; too

• Middle English: to
  • Scots: tae
  • English: to, too

Proto-Germanic *tō, whence also Old English tō and Old High German zuo

tō

1. to

From Proto-Slavic *to, from Proto-Indo-European *tód

• IPA^(key): /tɔ/

• Audio

  (file)

to

1. (demonstrative) this (nearby, neuter)

Note: tem and temi are archaic forms

to

1. (adverb) then (in that case)

• ta f
• ten m

• to in Polish dictionaries at PWN

to

1. water

• K. A. McElhanon, Selepet grammar (1972)
• William A. Foley, The Papuan Languages of New Guinea (1986, →ISBN, page 257

From Proto-Slavic *to.

to

1. it
2. that

• ten

From Proto-Slavic *to.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtóː/
• Tonal orthography: tọ̑

to

1. this (neuter)

to

1. (Euchre Creek) water

• Victor Golla, Tututni (Oregon Athapaskan), International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 42:3 (July 1976), pages 217-227

Compare Thai โต (dtoo), Lao ໂຕ (tō), Lü ᦷᦎ (ṫo).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tɔ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [tɔ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [tɔ˧˧]

to (租, 穌, 粗, 蘇, 𡚡, 𡚢, 𢀱, 𫰅)

1. big, large
2. great, considerable
3. loud

• lớn

From Proto-Brythonic *toɣ (“covering”).

• IPA^(key): /toː/

to m (plural toeau)

1. roof

• aderyn y to
• to bach

From Old Norse tvá, accusative of tveir, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

to (neuter tu or töuw)

1. (cardinal) two

• tjwo
• tjwå

From Old Norse tó (“patch of grass”).

to n (defninite toe)

1. open space in the woods with shrubs or brushwood, valley in the woods

Related to Persian تو‎ (to).

to

1. (informal) you (sg., acc.)