# doughty

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈdaʊti/ · frequency rank #35,694

## Definitions
1. Bold; brave, courageous.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **drought** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/doughty-vs-drought)
- **dough** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dough-vs-doughty)
- **Dougherty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dougherty-vs-doughty)

## Common misspellings (11)
`ddoughty`, `doguhty`, `dougghty`, `doughhty`, `doughtty`, `doughtyy`, `doughyt`, `dougthy`, `douhgty`, `duoghty`, `odughty`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/doughty