doughty

adjective

dough·​ty ˈdau̇-tē 

doughtier; doughtiest

: marked by fearless resolution : valiant

a doughty warrior

doughtily

ˈdau̇-tə-lē 

adverb

doughtiness

ˈdau̇-tē-nəs 

noun

Did you know?

There’s no doubt that doughty has persevered in the English language—it’s traceable all the way back to the Old English word dohtig—but how to pronounce it? One might assume that doughty should be pronounced \DAW-tee\, paralleling similarly spelled words like bought and sought, or perhaps with a long o, as in dough. But the vowel sound in doughty is the same as in doubt, and in fact, over the centuries, doughty’s spelling was sometimes confused with that of the now obsolete word doubty (“full of doubt”), which could be the reason we have the pronunciation we use today. The homophonous dowdy (“having a dull or uninteresting appearance”) can also be a source of confusion; an easy way to remember the difference is that you can’t spell doughty without the letters in tough (“physically and emotionally strong”).

Synonyms

• bold
• brave
• courageous
• dauntless
• fearless
• gallant
• greathearted
• gutsy
• gutty
• heroic
• heroical
• intrepid
• lionhearted
• manful
• stalwart
• stout
• stouthearted
• undauntable
• undaunted
• valiant
• valorous

Examples of doughty in a Sentence

the doughty heroes of old

Recent Examples on the Web

The last leg of the race is a full-on fever dream of impossible race moves spliced together with flashbacks from encounters that have brought our doughty hero to this moment — of encouragement from his friends and family and cynicism from his foes. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 12 Feb. 2024

The campaign also exposed the vacuum in our political press corps, which tried valiantly to prop up the Florida governor as a doughty maverick who shouldn’t be underestimated. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2024

And along with the doughty swarm of small organizations that keep New York’s music scene varied and vibrant, the Perelman Center makes its entrance as an opera presenter, staging one of the season’s two Huang Ruo works. —Vulture, 5 Jan. 2024

The doughty American consumer led the way, with personal consumption growing 4% and contributing about 2.7 percentage points to overall growth. —The Editorial Board, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English dohtig; akin to Old High German toug is useful, Greek teuchein to make

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

doughty

adjective

dough·​ty ˈdau̇t-ē 

doughtier; doughtiest

: very strong and brave

doughtily

ˈdau̇t-ᵊl-ē 

adverb

doughtiness

ˈdau̇t-ē-nəs 

noun