may
Plural: mays
Noun
- the month following April and preceding June
- thorny Eurasian shrub of small tree having dense clusters of white to scarlet flowers followed by deep red berries; established as an escape in eastern North America
- The hawthorn bush or its blossoms.
- A maiden.
Verb
Verb Forms: mayed, maying, mays, mayest, mayst, might
- Used to express possibility, permission, or wish.
- To gather spring flowers.
- To be strong; to have power (over).
- To be able; can.
- To be able to go.
- To have permission to, be allowed. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests.
- Granting the admissibility of a supposition, in a way that can be semantically either subjunctive or indicative.
- Expressing a present possibility; possibly.
- Granting the admissibility of a supposition, in a way that can be semantically either subjunctive or indicative.
- Expressing a disjunctive or contrastive relation between indicative statements.
- Expressing a wish (with present subjunctive effect).
- Used in modesty, courtesy, or concession, or to soften a question or remark.
- To gather may, or flowers in general.
- To celebrate May Day.
Examples
- A female crocodile may lay up to fourty eggs. [Typical occurrence.]
- A: Sigh. I'm bummed that Stephen Hawking died. B: Well, he may have died, but he's still alive in our hearts. [This speaker does not doubt that Stephen has died; nonetheless, the verb inflection is not different.]
- Do you think he may be lying?; Schrödinger's cat may or may not be in the box
- Let us pray that peace may soon return to our war-torn homeland.
- may you win; may the weather be sunny; long may your reign last
- Sam may be intelligent, but he isn't wise. [This speaker does not know with certainty whether Sam is intelligent, but the speaker allows the possibility.]
- You may be my boss, but that doesn't mean you can insult me.]
- You may play your word on the double letter score, if you dare.
- you may smoke outside; may I sit there?
- You may wish to consider this word, but it costs a lot of letters.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English mowen, mayen, moȝen, maȝen, from Old English magan, from Proto-West Germanic *magan, from Proto-Germanic *maganą, from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ-.
Cognate with Dutch mag (“may”, first- and third-person singular of mogen (“to be able to, be allowed to, may”)), Low German mögen, German mag (“like”, first- and third-person singular of mögen (“to like, want, require”)), Swedish må, Icelandic mega, megum. See also might.
Synonyms
Crataegus laevigata, Crataegus oxycantha, English hawthorn, whitethorn, can, could, might
Scrabble Score: 8
may: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordmay: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
may: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary