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Added 9 October 2026

doughnut

/ˈdəʊnʌt/ noun

First recorded: 1809 Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about doughnut at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

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.
Any object in the shape of a torus.
A circular life raft.

verb

To encircle something.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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