doughnut
Americannoun
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doughnuts
plural
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a small cake of sweetened or, sometimes, unsweetened dough fried in deep fat, typically shaped like a ring or, when prepared with a filling, a ball.
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anything shaped like a thick ring; an annular object; toroid.
noun
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a small cake of sweetened dough, often ring-shaped or spherical with a jam or cream filling, cooked in hot fat
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anything shaped like a ring, such as the reaction vessel of a thermonuclear reactor
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of doughnut
Explanation
A doughnut is a delicious, deep-fried breakfast treat. Most doughnuts are round and have a hole in the center. Some have frosting and sprinkles, too. You can also call a doughnut a donut, a slightly more common way to spell it in North America. There are different types of doughnuts, but they're all made of sweet dough that's usually fried (but sometimes baked). Many bakeries that specialize in doughnuts also sell doughnut holes, small enough to pop in your mouth. The very earliest doughnuts were probably the olykoek, or "oil cakes" brought to New York by 19th century Dutch settlers.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Customers queued in long lines for a special-edition Harry Potter doughnut collection last year, for example.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Police believe Blessing was upset the doughnut shop was closed when he stopped by at 3:30 a.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
After being taken private in 2020, coffee and doughnut chain Dunkin’ is set to return to the public market — and it’s bringing a few friends.
From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026
A "chocolate doughnut Easter egg" triggers curiosity - a shell blended with shortbread and fudge pieces, topped with sprinkles.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
This vacant eye, listless hand, this damask cheek dusted like a doughnut with plastic powder, had to have a memory or a dream.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Apparently, this was evidenced by the fact that people in the office once got doughnuts during a meeting, while the remote employees didn’t get anything special.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
For dessert, Proust's beloved madeleines and mirabelles jostled for attention with distinctly American-accented glazed doughnuts.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
More recently, a bunch of “unruly teenagers,” as Syd describes them, have been doing doughnuts in the street near her parents’ house.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
They serve coffee, doughnuts, croissants and avocado toast.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
She makes Julia crack up over a story about her little brother eating doughnuts, but I feel like I can’t laugh.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
