mostとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English most, moste, from 古期英語 mǣst, māst, from Proto-Germanic *maistaz, *maist. Cognate with Scots mast, maist (“most”), Saterland Frisian maast (“most”), West Frisian meast (“most”), Dutch meest (“most”), German meist (“most”), Danish and Swedish mest (“most”), Icelandic mestur (“most”).

別の表記

• moste (廃れた用法)

限定詞

most

1. superlative degree of much.

   The teams competed to see who could collect (the) most money.

2. superlative degree of many: the comparatively largest number of (construed with the definite article)

   The team with the most points wins.

3. superlative degree of many: the majority of; more than half of (construed without the definite article)

   Most bakers and dairy farmers have to get up early.

   Winning was not important for most participants.

同意語

• (最上級 of much): more than half of (in meaning, not grammar), almost all
• (最上級 of many): the majority of (in meaning, not grammar)

副詞

most (not comparable)

1. Forms the superlative of many adjectives.

   This is the most important example.

   Correctness is most important.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071, page 77:

     With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎^[1]:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”

   Antonym: least

2. To a great extent or degree; highly; very.

   This is a most unusual specimen.

   • 1750, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music), “Theodora”‎^[2]:

     Most cruel edict! Sure, thy generous soul, Septimius, abhors the dreadful task of persecution.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299, page 77:

     A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy!

   • 1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Palace of Green Porcelain”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, OCLC 4701980, page 162:

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing.

3. superlative form of many: most many
4. superlative form of much: most much
   • 2013 August 3, “Boundary Problems”, in The Economist‎^[3], volume 408, number 8847:

     Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.

   Antonym: least

派生語

関連する語

• more

代名詞

most

1. The greater part of a group, especially a group of people.

   Most want the best for their children.

   The peach was juicier and more flavourful than most.

同意語

• (greater part): the majority

名詞

most (usually uncountable, 複数形 mosts)

1. (uncountable) The greatest amount.

   The most I can offer for the house is $150,000.

2. (countable, uncountable) The greater part.

   Most of the penguins were friendly and curious.

   Most of the rice was spoiled.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619, page 46:

     At half-past nine on this Saturday evening the parlor of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for the select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 483591931, page 249:

     The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. […] The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.

   • 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

     Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

3. (countable) A record-setting amount.
   • 2001, George Barna, Real Teens: A Contemporary Snapshot of Youth Culture, →ISBN, page 15:

     Along with their massive size will come other “mosts”: they will likely be the longest living, the best educated, the wealthiest and the most wired/ wireless.

   • 2002, John Gregory Selby, Virginians at War: The Civil War Experiences of Seven Young Confederates, →ISBN, page xvii:

     Virginia had a number of "mosts” that made it appealing, if not representative of all Confederate states: the most citizens among the Southern states; the most slaves; the most men under arms; the most famous Southern generals; the most fighting within its borders; the most divided by the war (what other Southern state lost a quarter of its territory かつ saw a new state created out of that former territory?); and the most damaged by the war.

   • 2007, Joe Moscheo, The Gospel Side of Elvis, →ISBN:

     The record of Elvis' achievement is truly remarkable; his list of “firsts” and “mosts” is probably without parallel in music and entertainment history.

使用する際の注意点

• In the sense of record, used when the positive denotation of best does not apply.

語源 2

Reduction of almost.

副詞

most (not comparable)

1. (informal, chiefly US) Almost.
   • 1998, Bill Zehme, The Way You Wear Your Hat: And the Lost Art of Livin' (page 181)

     A well-daiquiried redhead eyed him from across the room at Jilly's one night in 1963 — although it could have been most any night ever […]

   • 2000, Jewish Baltimore: A Family Album →ISBN, page 159:

     "We walked there most every day after school."

   • 2011, Charlotte Maclay, Wanted: A Dad to Brag About, →ISBN:

     “Can't be all that bad if Luke likes it. Most everywhere has air-conditioning, he says.”

参照

• most at OneLook Dictionary Search

アナグラム

• MOTs, MTSO, TMOs, Toms, mots, smot, toms

接尾辞

-most

1. Furthest; -est; used to form superlatives of certain adjectives, especially directional and inherently-comparative ones.

使用する際の注意点

• Productivity of the suffix is limited in contemporary English.

等位語

• -more

派生語

• eldermost
• nearmost
• secondmost (variant of second most)

アナグラム

• MOTs, MTSO, TMOs, Toms, mots, toms