doughty
/ˈdaʊti/adjective
doughty is spelled D-O-U-G-H-T-Y: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, doughty means “Catachresis for dowdy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in doughty?
| Letters | 7: D-O-U-G-H-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 doughty?
Doughty appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th 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 doughty?
- UK /ˈdaʊti/
- US /ˈdaʊti/
- US [-ɾi]
Doughty has 2 syllables (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-uk-doughty.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with doughty?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as doughty from its last stressed vowel (/aʊti/):
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 doughty
- doughtier comparative
- more doughty comparative
- doughtiest superlative
- most doughty superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does doughty mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
archaicBold; brave, courageous.
- 2
archaicRobust, sturdy; strong and perhaps stout.
- 3
Catachresis for dowdy.
noun
- 1
archaicrareA person who is bold or brave.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Doughty in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense bold; brave, courageous – see also brave:
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.
Where does doughty come from?
The adjective is derived from Middle English doughty (“brave, bold, valiant”), from Old English dohtiġ, dyhtiġ (“competent, good, strong, valiant”), from Proto-West Germanic *duhtīg. The English word may be analysed as dought + -y, and is cognate with Scots douchty, douchtie (“bold, valiant”), Dutch duchtig (“severe, strict”), German tüchtig (“capable, competent, efficient; big; hard”), Danish dygtig (“virtuous, proficient”), Swedish duktig (“efficient; good; capable, clever, smart”), Icelandic dygðugur (“virtuous, stable”). The noun is derived from the adjective.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).