Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

shoulda en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃʊdə/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Written form of a reduction of should have.

Meanings

  1. (abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, contraction, past, subjunctive) Contraction of should + have.
    alt of should
    • You shoulda told him the truth.
    • Ah shoulda known bettern't' challenge a genius! 2009, Kiyohiko Azuma, “Genius y'all...”, in Stephen Paul, transl., edited by Yen Press, Azumanga Daioh Omnibus, New York City, →ISBN, page 34:

Deriveds

woulda, coulda, shoulda

Relateds

should've · mighta · shouldna · woulda · musta · coulda

wikipedia: reduction (linguistics)