to

to

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Tongan.

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

From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, 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, te (“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”). Doublet of too.

Stressed

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: to͞o, IPA^(key): /tuː/, [tʰu̟ː]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: to͞o IPA^(key): /tu/, [tʰu̟]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /tʉː/, [tʰʉː]
• Homophones: too, two
• Rhymes: -uː

Unstressed

This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready. Particularly: "(US, after a vowel) (before a vowel) (US, after a vowel)"

• (before a consonant) IPA^(key): /tə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US, after a vowel) IPA^(key): [ɾə]
• (before a vowel) IPA^(key): /tʊ/
• (US, after a vowel) IPA^(key): [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 have places to go and people to see.

   To err is human.

   Who am I to criticise? I've done worse things myself.

   • 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:

     To err, is human; to forgive, divine.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

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

   • 2010 July, “Archived copy”, in Associated Press‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 July 2010, headline:

     Odds are, BP to get new CEO this year

   • 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     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. Used to indicate an obligation on the part of, or a directive given to, the subject.

   You are to go to the store and buy a bottle of milk.

4. (expressing purpose) In order to.

   I went to the shops to buy some bread.

A user suggests that this English entry be cleaned up, giving the reason: “Sense 1 is not the English infinitive morpheme, that would be -∅. The sentence "I could eat." contains a verb in the infinitive but no to. Rather, to is a particle that is used in conjunction with an already (zero-)marked infinitive. The box below, however, seems to contain a random mix of translations of the infinitive marker -∅ (e.g. German -en, Romanian -a, Turkish -mek) and the particle to (e.g. German zu, Romanian a).”

Please see the discussion on Requests for cleanup(+) or the talk page for more information and remove this template after the problem has been dealt with.

to

1. In the direction of; towards.

   She looked to the heavens.

2. Indicating destination or final position: In the direction of, so as to arrive at or reach.

   We are walking to the shop.

   The water came right to the top of this wall.

   The coconut fell to the ground.

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in 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.

3. Used to indicate the target or recipient of an action.

   I gave the book to him.

   I spoke to him earlier.

   He devoted himself to education.

   They drank to his health.

4. So as to contact, press against, impact, etc.

   I fixed the notice to the wall.

   Put your shoulder to the door.

5. Used to indicate result of action.

   His face was beaten to a pulp.

   I tried complaining, but it was to no effect.

   1. Used to indicate a resulting feeling or emotion.

      To everyone's great relief, the tuneless carol singers finally ceased their warbling.

6. 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.

7. Indicating a degree or level reached.

   It was to a large extent true.

   We manufacture these parts to a very high tolerance.

8. 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.

   The name has a nice ring to it.

9. Denotes the end of a range.

   It takes 2 to 4 weeks to process typical applications.

10. (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).

11. Used to indicate a ratio or comparison; compared to, as against.

    one to one = 1:1

    ten to one = 10:1.

    I have ten dollars to your four.

    The odds on that horse are seven to two.

    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

      The hoſt of Xerxes, which by fame is ſaid
      To drinke the mightie Parthian Araris,
      Was but a handfull to that we will haue.

    • 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎^[3]:

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

12. (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.

13. (time) Preceding (the stated hour).

    What's the time? – It's quarter to four in the afternoon (or 3:45 pm).

    Antonym: past

    1. (informal) With implied hour.

       It’s quarter to (3:45, or 4:45, or whatever time ending in 45 would make the most sense)

14. According to.

    Our holiday did not go to plan.

15. (Canada, Cornwall (UK), Newfoundland, Wales, West Midlands (UK)) At.

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

    Where are you to?

    • 1867, Cornish Tales, in prose and verse by various authors, page 33:

      "What's that to you?" said Trevool, rather sharply, "worn't I to a berrin? […]

16. Used more-or-less idiomatically with various verbs: keep to the left, agree to the proposal, attend to the matter, etc. See the individual entries.

In the sense of "as a", it is a fossil word (Standard English only), found usually only in obsolete 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.

• at

to (not comparable)

1. (regionalism) Toward a closed, touching or engaging position.

   Synonyms: closed, shut

   Antonyms: open, ajar

   Please push the door to.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter V, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 104:

     Aware of the loud beating of my own heart I pulled the door to against the increasing rain.

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

The sense "toward a closed, touching or engaging position" is a regionalism found in various parts of the UK and US.

• come to
• heave to
• here's to
• lean-to
• set-to
• to and fro

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:to.

From Hindi तो (to).

• (India) IPA^(key): /toː/, [ʈoː]

to

1. (mild intensifier, colloquial, chiefly North India) a filler word common amongst urban Indians.

   I am to so bored right now.

• 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 (epicene, plural tos)

1. your

• tuyu

From Proto-Athabaskan *tuˑ.

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

Borrowed from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos).^[1] First attested in 1575.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtɔ]

to m (plural tons)

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

• entonar
• semitò

• “to” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “to” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “to” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old Czech to.

• IPA^(key): [ˈto]

• Audio:

  (file)

to n

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of ten: it, this, that

• “to”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “to”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “to”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

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”).

The modern Danish form is a merger of the original East Old Norse accusative masculine twā and the nominative/accusative feminine twāʀ (West tvær). The neuter tū (West tvau) is preserved in the adverb itu.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtˢoˀ]

to

1. two

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈtˢoˀ]

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

1. (dated) wash

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [to]
• Hyphenation: to

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

1. The name of the Latin-script letter T/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]
• Rhymes: -o
• Hyphenation^(key): to

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. in, at, to

• Oumar Bah, Dictionnaire Pular-Français, Avec un index français-pular, Webonary.org, SIL International, 2014.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɔː]

to

1. interjection used to call dogs or cattle
   • 1820, B. A. Fandiño, El Heráclito Español y Demócrito Gallego:

     Meu señor santo Tomé,
     tendes dous nomes nun só,
     sodes castrón polo mé,
     é sodes cán polo tó.

     My good sir Santo Tomé:
     You have two names in just one,
     You are a ram with the "mé"
     And a dog with the "tó"

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “to”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “to”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “to”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

to

1. feminine definite article

   Mutu to ― The woman

• le

to

1. language

• Mary E. Kropp Dakubu, The Languages of Ghana

Cognates include Fon tò, Saxwe Gbe otò, Adja eto

• òtò, otò

• IPA^(key): /tò/

tò (plural tò lɛ́ or tò lẹ́)

1. city, village, town, country

   Ùn ná yì ná tò cé / N ná yì ná tò ṣié ― I will go to my country

Cognates include Fon tò

• IPA^(key): /tò/

tò

1. A present progressive or habitual tense marker, only used before nouns.

   Synonyms: nɔ̀, nọ̀

   Nyɛ́ tò hàn jì / Yẹ́n tò hàn jì ― I am singing

• IPA^(key): /tò/

tò

1. in, at

Cognates include Fon tò, Adja tò. Compare Yoruba tò, Ifè tò

• IPA^(key): /tò/

tò

1. to arrange, manage, organise

 

From Proto-Gbe *-tó. Cognates include Fon tó, Saxwe Gbe otó, Adja eto, Ewe eto

• òtó, otó

• IPA^(key): /tó/

tó (plural tó lɛ́ or tó lẹ́)

1. ear

From Proto-Athabaskan *tuˑ.

• 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. Alternative form of ito (“that”)

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. The hiragana syllable と (to) or the katakana syllable ト (to) in Hepburn romanization.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *to.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔ/
• Rhymes: -ɔ
• Syllabification: to

to

1. relative and interrogative pronoun; this, that

• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “to”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎^[4]

to

1. or

to

1. or

• tū

From Proto-Athabaskan *tuˑ.

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)

• IPA^(key): /tɔ/

to

1. to make something go up

• Hkaw Luk (2017) A grammatical sketch of Lacid‎^[5], Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis)

to

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

to

1. that; genitive singular masculine of tas

Inherited from French tu (“you, thou”).

• IPA^(key): /to/
• Rhymes: -o
• Homophone: tô

to (second person informal singular, plural vouzòt, ouzòt, zòt, zo, objective twa, possessive determiner tô, possessive pronoun tokin, tochin)

1. you (singular), thou

   To té paʼlé gra. / To te pale gra.

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

• (prevocalic) t'

• 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 English tā, tāhe, from Proto-West Germanic *taihā, from Proto-Germanic *taihwǭ (“toe”).

• toe, towe, two, tho, teie; ta (northern); toa (Early Middle English)

• IPA^(key): /tɔː/
• (Northern) IPA^(key): /taː/

to (plural tos or ton)

1. (anatomy) toe

• mistelto

• English: toe
• Scots: tae
• Yola: toan (plural)

• “tō, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old English tō, ta, te, from Proto-Germanic *tō, *ta.

• IPA^(key): /toː/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /tu/, /tɔ/

to

1. to (infinitive marker)

• ta, ti, tu, tho, thu; te (Early Middle English); t (prevocalic)

• English: to
• Scots: tae

• “tọ̄̆, verbal part.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

to

1. to

• ta, ti, tu, tho, thu; te (Early Middle English); t (prevocalic)

• English: to
• Scots: tae
• Yola: ta, to, t'

• “tọ̄̆, prep.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

to

1. to

• two

• English: to
• Scots: tae

• “tọ̄, adv.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

to

1. too

• two; ta (northern West Midlands)

• English: too
• Scots: tae
• Yola: too

• “tọ̄, adv.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

to

1. until
2. while
3. so that

• “tọ̄̆, conj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Shortening of tone.

to

1. the one (of two)

• two; ta (northern)

to

1. Alternative form of tó:

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

• IPA^(key): /tuː/

to

1. two

• “to” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• tvo, tvei, tvaug, tvau, tvær, tver, tu, tvu (two, non-standard or Høgnorsk gender-depending)

• IPA^(key): /tuː/

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

to

1. two

• toar
• todelt
• todimensjonal
• tospråkleg
• toåring

From Old Norse tó n.

to n (definite singular toet, indefinite plural to, definite plural toa)

1. fabric
2. (figurative, by extension) ability, nature

From Old Norse tó f.

to f (definite singular toa, indefinite plural tør, definite plural tørne)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

• “to” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• ot

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *to.

to

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of ten: it, this, that

• Czech: to

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “to”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění