tough
German, adjective/taf/
tough is spelled T-O-U-G-H (5 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written German, the 43,091st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tough is a German adjective meaning “alternative form of taff (“tough; robust; assertive and not overly sensitive”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “robust, widerstandsfähig”.
What does tough mean in English?
adjective
- 1
slangalternative form of taff (“tough; robust; assertive and not overly sensitive”)
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. robust, widerstandsfähig
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tough
- tougher masculine nominative singular
- am toughsten superlative
- am toughesten superlative
- toughe feminine nominative singular
- toughes neuter nominative singular
- toughen genitive masculine singular
- toughem dative masculine singular
- der toughe definite includes-article masculine
- die toughe definite feminine includes-article
- das toughe definite includes-article neuter
- die toughen definite includes-article nominative
- des toughen definite genitive includes-article
- der toughen definite feminine genitive
- dem toughen dative definite includes-article
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tough?
- /taf/
- [taf]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is tough in German?
tough appears about once in every 1 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).