Donut or doughnut?
donut is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of doughnut”; doughnut is a noun meaning “A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners…”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. They sound the same (/ˈdəʊnʌt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) donut is about as common as doughnut.
What is the difference between donut and doughnut?
| donut | doughnut | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | AustraliaCanadaUSAlternative spelling of doughnut | A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape… A circular life raft To encircle something |
| Example | none recorded | The advantage of the doughnuts was that they spread the weight of the aeroplane over a much larger area of ground, causing less damage to… |
| Forms | donuts | doughnuts |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdəʊnʌt/ /ˈdoʊ(ˌ)nʌt/ | /ˈdəʊnʌt/ /ˈdoʊ(ˌ)nʌt/ |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words | 1.5 times per million words |
Sources: donut and doughnut in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of donut and doughnut
donut
- 1
AustraliaCanadaUSAlternative spelling of doughnut
doughnut
- 1
A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream
- 2
To encircle something
- 3
A circular life raft
- 4
A toroidal vacuum chamber
- 5
AustraliaCanadaUSA peel-out or skid mark in the shape of a circle; a 360-degree skid
- 6
A spare car tyre, usually stored in the boot, that is smaller than a full-sized tyre and is only intended for temporary use
- 7
A kind of tyre for an airplane
The advantage of the doughnuts was that they spread the weight of the aeroplane over a much larger area of ground, causing less damage to grass, and making them less prone to…
- 8
A shaper for making hair into a ponytail or bun
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, donut or doughnut?
donut appears 2.0 times per million words; doughnut 1.5 times per million words.
donut 2.0 times per million wordsdoughnut 1.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search donut vs doughnut?
“donut vs doughnut” is searched about 4,400 times a month on Google and 120 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“doughnut vs donut”, “donut or doughnut”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.