From en.wiktionary.org:
[may be]
** English
[wikipedia]
*** Alternative forms
- [en]
- [en]
*** Etymology
From an ellipsis of [en], equivalent to [en]. Compare [en].
*** Pronunciation
- [mā'bē] , [en]
- [en]
- [en]
- [en]
*** Adverb
[-]
1. Perhaps , possibly .
2. [as a pro-sentence] Perhaps that is true [expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement] .
3. * 2016 , VOA Learning English (see https://web.archive.org/web/20171030003034/https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lets-learn-english-lesson-8-are-you-busy/3253185.html) (public domain)
4. *: Okay. See you later, MAYBE . — MAYBE I’ll see you later.
5. [en] Certainly .
**** Usage notes
- Do not confuse MAYBE with the verb construction MAY BE : "Maybe that's true", but "That may be true".
**** Synonyms
- [perhaps] [en] , [en] , [en] , [en]
- [as a pro-sentence] [en] , [en] , [en] , [en] , [en] , that’s possible
**** Derived terms
[en]
**** Translations
[indicating a lack of certainty]
- Afrikaans: [af] , [af]
- Albanian: [sq]
- Aleut: [ale]
- Alviri-Vidari: [avd]
- Arabic: [ar] , [ar] , [ar]
- Armenian: [hy]
- Asturian: [ast] , [ast]
- Azerbaijani: [az] , [az]
- Bashkir: [ba] , [ba] , [ba]
- Basque: [eu]
- Belarusian: [be] , [be] , [be] , [be] , [be] [informal]
- Bulgarian: [bg]
- Catalan: [ca]
- Central Sierra Miwok: [csm]
- Chechen: [ce]
- Cherokee: [chr] , [chr]
- Chinese:
- Cornish: [kw]
- Czech: [cs] , [cs]
- Danish: [da]
- Dutch: [nl] , [nl] , [nl] , [nl]
- Esperanto: [eo]
- Estonian: [et] , [et] , [et] , [et] , [et] , [et]
- Faroese: [fo]
- Finnish: [fi] , [fi]
- French: [fr] , [fr] [+ indicative] , [fr] [+ subjunctive]
- Galician: [gl] , [gl] , [gl] , [gl] , [gl]
- Gallo: [roa-gal]
- Georgian: [ka] , [ka]
- German: [de] , [de] , [de]
- Greek: [el]
- Hawaiian: [haw]
- Hebrew: [he] , [he]
- Hindi: [hi] , [hi]
- Hungarian: [hu]
- Icelandic: [is] , [is] , [is] , [is] , [is]
- Ido: [io]
- Indonesian: [id]
- Irish: [ga] , [ga]
- Italian: [it] , [it] , [it]
- Japanese: [ja] , [ja] , [ja] , [ja]
- Kaingang: [kgp]
- Kazakh: [kk]
- Khiamniungan Naga: [kix]
- Khmer: [km]
- Korean: [ko] , [ko] , [ko]
- Kurdish:
- Kyrgyz: [ky] , [ky]
- Ladino: [lad]
- Lao: [lo] , [lo]
- Latin: [la] , [la] , [la] , [la] , [la] , [la] , [la]
- Latvian: [lv]
- Ligurian: [lij]
- Lithuanian: [lt] , [lt]
- Livonian: [liv]
- Low German: [nds] ; [nds-de] [Eastern Westphalian] , [nds-de] [Eastern Westphalian]
- Macedonian: [mk]
- Malay: [ms] , [ms]
- Maltese: [mt]
- Maori: [mi] [before a verb or adjective] , [mi] [after a verb or adjective]
- Marathi: [mr]
- Mari:
- Mauritian Creole: [mfe]
- Mbyá Guaraní: [gun]
- Michif: [crg]
- Mongolian:
- Moose Cree: [crm]
- Navajo: [nv]
- North Frisian: [frr]
- Norwegian:
- Occitan: [oc] , [oc]
- Ojibwe: [oj] , [oj]
- Old English: [ang]
- Pashto: [ps]
- Persian: [fa]
- Plains Cree: [crk] , [crk]
- Plautdietsch: [pdt]
- Polish: [pl] , [pl]
- Portuguese: [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt]
- Punjabi: [pa] , [pa]
- Romanian: [ro]
- Russian: [ru] , [ru] , [ru] , [ru] [as a conjunction]
- Sanskrit: [sa]
- Scots: [sco]
- Scottish Gaelic: [gd] , [gd]
- Slovak: [sk] , [sk] , [sk]
- Slovene: [sl] , [sl]
- Spanish: [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es] , [es]
- Swedish: [sv] , [sv] , [sv] , [sv]
- Tagalog: [tl]
- Tajik: [tg]
- Tatar: [tt] , [tt] , [tt]
- Thai: [th] , [th] , [th]
- Turkish: [tr] , [tr]
- Turkmen: [tk]
- Ugaritic: [uga]
- Ukrainian: [uk] , [uk] , [uk] , [colloquial] [uk] , [uk]
- Urdu: [ur] , [ur]
- Uyghur: [ug] , [ug]
- Uzbek: [uz] , [uz]
- Vietnamese: [vi]
- Walloon: [wa] , [wa] , [wa]
- Welsh: [cy] , [cy] , [cy]
- West Frisian: [fy]
- Yiddish: [yi]
- Zazaki: [zza] , [zza]
[trans-bottom]
[as a pro-sentence]
- Arabic: [ar] , [ar]
- Armenian: [hy]
- Bashkir: [ba] , [ba]
- Chinese:
- Czech: [cs]
- Danish: [da]
- Dutch: [nl] , [nl] , [nl]
- Faroese: [fo]
- Finnish: [fi]
- French: [fr] , c'est possible
- Galician: [gl] , [gl]
- Gallo: [roa-gal]
- German: [de] , [de] , [de]
- Hebrew: [he]
- Icelandic: [is] , [is] , [is] , [is] , [is]
- Irish: [ga]
- Italian: [it] , [it]
- Japanese: [ja]
- Maori: [mi]
- Norwegian:
- Portuguese: [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt] , [pt]
- Romanian: [ro]
- Russian: [ru] , [ru]
- Scottish Gaelic: [gd] , [gd]
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Slovak: [sk]
- Slovene: [sl]
- Spanish: es posible
- Swedish: [sv] , [sv] [if expressing doubts]
[trans-bottom]
*** Adjective
[en-adj]
1. Possible ; uncertain .
2. * {{ quote-text | en | year=1687 | author=w:John Dryden | title=w:The Hind and the Panther | section=part III line 294
|passage=Then add those MAY-BE years thou hast to live}}
*** Noun
[en-noun]
1. [en] Something that is possibly true.
2. [en] An answer that shows neither agreement nor disagreement.
3. [en] A future event that may or may not happen.
**** Synonyms
- [en]
**** Derived terms
- [en]
*** Anagrams
- [en]
[en]