doughty

/ˈdaʊti/

//ˈdaʊti// adj

"doughty" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“doughty” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #35,694. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#35,694
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bold; brave, courageous.

Corpus desk

Index EN-doughty · doughty · English

doughty · rank #35,694 · 11 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #35,694
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH dominoes

Nearest frequency peer: dominoes (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “doughty”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “doughty” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

doughty vs drought
71% similar
doughty vs dough
71% similar
doughty vs Dougherty
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for doughty
PropertyValue
Headworddoughty
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˈdaʊti/
Letters7
Frequency rank#35,694
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “doughty”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).doughtylands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “dominoes” (#35,693), “downpour” (#35,695), “diverge” (#35,692). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “doughty” is #35,694. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around doughty (IPA /ˈdaʊti/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #35,694 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Bold; brave, courageous.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for doughty, with forms such as "ddoughty", "doguhty", and "dougghty". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "drought", "dough", "Dougherty", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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 Danis… The correct English form is doughty, spelled D-O-U-G-H-T-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bold; brave, courageous.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how doughty appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Hurriedly he snatched up others, one or two at a time, until he had slaughtered thirty of Hrothgar's doughtiest earls.
  2. [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams's play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

Etymology

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 Danish dygtig (“virtuous, proficient”), Dutch duchtig (“severe, strict”), German tüchtig (“capable, competent, efficient; big; hard”), Icelandic dygðugur (“virtuous, stable”), Scots douchty, douchtie (“bold, valiant”), Swedish duktig (“efficient; good; capable, clever, smart”). The noun is derived from the adjective.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddoughty
  • doguhty
  • dougghty
  • doughhty
  • doughtty
  • doughtyy
  • doughyt
  • dougthy
  • douhgty
  • duoghty
  • odughty

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of doughty - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ddoughty1doguhty2dougghty1doughhty1doughtty1doughtyy1doughyt2dougthy2
Edit distance from "doughty"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "doughty"?
"doughty" is spelled D-O-U-G-H-T-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈdaʊti/.
What does "doughty" mean?
As an adjective, "doughty" means: Bold; brave, courageous.
What words are commonly confused with "doughty"?
"doughty" is commonly confused with "drought", "dough", "Dougherty". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "doughty"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "doughty" is /ˈdaʊti/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "doughty"?
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 ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "doughty", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list