Haughty

//ˈhɔːti// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Conveying in demeanour the assumption of superiority; disdainful, supercilious.

    "How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […]."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
disdainfulproudaerialairyairyaloof

Example

More examples

"The young girl was haughty to me."

Etymology

From earlier hauty, haultic, with spelling change in imitation of English naughty and English high, from Middle English hautein, hautain (with -ein, -ain becoming -y through the form hautenesse standing for *hauteinnesse; see haughtiness), from Middle English haute (“self-important”), from Old French haut, hault (“high, lofty”), from Frankish *hauh, *hōh (“high, lofty, proud”) and Latin altus (“high, deep”).

More for "haughty"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.