doubt
/daʊt/verb, noun
doubt is spelled D-O-U-B-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 79 times per million words in written English, the 1,338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, doubt means “To consider questionable or unlikely; to hesitate to believe; to lack confidence in; to question” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in doubt?
| Letters | 5: D-O-U-B-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 79 times per million words; the 1,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is doubt?
Doubt appears 79 times per million words in written English, the 1,338th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce doubt?
- US /daʊt/
- Canada /dʌʊt/
Doubt has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-doubt.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-doubt.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with doubt
Sounds like: dought (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with doubt?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as doubt from its last stressed vowel (/aʊt/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of doubt
- doubts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- doubting participle, present
- doubted participle, past
- dout
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does doubt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To consider questionable or unlikely; to hesitate to believe; to lack confidence in; to question.
He doubted that was really what you meant.
- 2
To harbour suspicion about; suspect.
- 3
archaicTo anticipate with dread or fear; to apprehend.
- 4
obsoleteTo fill with fear; to affright.
- 5
obsoleteTo dread, to fear.
noun
- 1
Disbelief or uncertainty (about something); (countable) a particular instance of such disbelief or uncertainty.
There was some doubt as to who the child's real father was.
- 2
A point of uncertainty, especially a yes/no or a multiple-choice question
Ma'am, I have a doubt about today's lecture
- 3
a question (that one has)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Doubt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | douter , doute |
| German | bezweifeln, zweifeln , Zweifel |
| Portuguese | duvidar , dúvida, incerteza |
| Spanish | dudar , duda , dubio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.