What does "doughnut" mean?
A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream.
Doughnut
/ˈdəʊˌnʌt/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream.
- Grammar: doughnut is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: donut, anchor ring, annulus, beignet.
- Usage evidence: Many of Europe's metropolises are plagued by the doughnut phenomenon.
How to use "doughnut"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "doughnut" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "doughnut" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "doughnut" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "doughnut" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "doughnut" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "donut" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "doughnut", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream.
"The soldiers, drawn up in hollow square—how apt is this word hollow, when applied to men who have fasted, in view of promised doughnuts!—received the procession, which consisted of music, then the ladies, then the doughnuts."
- 2 a small ring-shaped friedcake wordnet
- 3 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A circular life raft. attributive, figuratively
"He put on the life jacket and began paddling around. A doughnut life raft popped up out of the ocean in front of him."
- 4 a toroidal shape wordnet
- 5 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A toroidal vacuum chamber. figuratively
"In about 1951, the same company sealed into their vacuum doughnuts the regenerative peelers so that X-ray beams or electron beams could be obtained with the sealed off commercial tubes used in […]"
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A peel-out or skid mark in the shape of a circle; a 360-degree skid. Australia, Canada, US, figuratively
- 7 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A spare car tyre, usually stored in the boot, that is smaller than a full-sized tyre and is only intended for temporary use. figuratively
- 8 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A kind of tyre for an airplane. figuratively
"The advantage of the doughnuts was that they spread the weight of the aeroplane over a much larger area of ground, causing less damage to grass, and making them less prone to bogging down in wet conditions."
- 9 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A shaper for making hair into a ponytail or bun figuratively
"Place the hair doughnut/ring around your ponytail"
- 10 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A vulva; by extension, a woman's virginity. figuratively, slang, vulgar
"When I was at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . . . there was a lady student there — and I had designs on her doughnut"
- 11 Any object in the shape of a torus.; A puffy anus with the outward shape of a donut; more generally, any anus. figuratively, slang, vulgar
- 12 A foolish or stupid person; an idiot. colloquial
"Nice going, you doughnut!"
- 13 A toroidal cushion typically used by hemorrhoid patients.
- 14 A whole note. slang
Verb
- 1 To encircle something.
"[…] even the notorious ‘doughnuting’ (gathering around the Member speaking) appears to have fallen out of fashion."
Proper Noun
- 1 The head office of the GCHQ in Cheltenham, UK. UK, informal
"Former hackers as well as government suits roam the curved corridors of “the Doughnut”, as GCHQ’s base is known."
Example
"Many of Europe's metropolises are plagued by the doughnut phenomenon."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "doughnut"?
Common synonyms include: donut, anchor ring, annulus, beignet, cruller, crullers.
How do you use "doughnut" in a sentence?
Many of Europe's metropolises are plagued by the doughnut phenomenon.
How do you pronounce "doughnut"?
Pronounced /ˈdəʊˌnʌt/.
Etymology
From dough + nut, 1809 because originally small, nut-sized balls of fried dough, or, more likely, from nut in the earlier sense of "small rounded cake or cookie", with the toroidal shape becoming common in the twentieth century. First attested in Knickerbocker’s History of New York, by Washington Irving, 1809.