toughie
/ˈtʌfi/noun
toughie is spelled T-O-U-G-H-I-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 119,826th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, toughie means “Something that is tough, or difficult” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of toughie is toughies.
How many letters and syllables are in toughie?
| Letters | 7: T-O-U-G-H-I-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 16 million words; the 119,826th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is toughie?
Toughie appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 119,826th 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 toughie?
- /ˈtʌfi/
Toughie 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-us-toughie.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of toughie
- toughies plural
- toughy
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does toughie mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
informalSomething that is tough, or difficult.
His question is a toughie. I might have to do some more research.
- 2
Someone or something that is strong and resilient.
- 3
A tough; Someone or something that acts as a thug or bully.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does toughie come from?
From tough + -ie.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).