Doughnut vs Donut: Spelling, History and Usage

Doughnut is the traditional spelling and the standard choice in British, Australian, Canadian and formal American writing. Donut is a simplified variant that became popular in the United States and is now accepted by dictionaries, especially for informal use, menus and brand names.

So this is not quite a clean US/UK split like colour vs color. Americans use both spellings, while the rest of the English-speaking world mostly sticks with doughnut. Below you will find where each form came from, how the regions differ, and how to choose for your own writing.

Quick answer: Doughnut is correct everywhere and is the safer choice for formal or international writing. Donut is a common, accepted American variant, typical on signs, menus and in casual writing. In the UK and Australia, doughnut is standard and donut looks American.

On this page

1. What a doughnut is
2. The history of both spellings
3. Spelling by country
4. Doughnut words that change across borders
5. Example sentences
6. US vs UK vs Australia
7. What to choose for your writing
8. Common mistakes
9. A memory trick
10. Practice quiz
11. Before you hit publish

What a doughnut is

A doughnut is a small, sweet cake of fried dough. The two most familiar shapes are:

• Ring doughnuts, with a hole in the middle, often glazed, iced or sugared.
• Filled doughnuts, round with no hole, injected with jam, custard or cream.

Americans often call filled ones jelly doughnuts (jelly being the American word for jam) or Boston cream doughnuts. In Britain and Australia, a jam doughnut is the classic, typically rolled in sugar.

The word also has figurative and technical meanings:

• A ring shape: anything round with a hole, from a cushion to a traffic island.
• Car stunts: doing doughnuts means spinning a car in circles.
• A spare tire: in the US, a donut is a small temporary spare.
• Economics: doughnut economics is a model that pictures a safe and just space for humanity as a ring between social needs and environmental limits.
• Mathematics: a doughnut shape is the everyday name for a torus.

Pronunciation

Both spellings are pronounced identically: DOH-nut. The gh in dough is silent, as in though. Donut simply spells the word the way it sounds.

The history of both spellings

Where doughnut came from

The word is a straightforward compound: dough + nut. The "nut" part refers to a small rounded lump, because many early doughnuts were little balls of fried dough rather than rings. It had nothing to do with nuts as an ingredient, although some early recipes may have included them.

One of the best-known early appearances of the word is in Washington Irving's A History of New York (1809), where he describes "dough-nuts" among the foods of the Dutch settlers. Fried dough cakes, sometimes called olykoeks ("oily cakes") by Dutch-speaking colonists, were part of the food culture of New Amsterdam, which later became New York. Fried dough treats existed across Europe long before that, of course, but the English word doughnut became established in America in the early nineteenth century and spread from there.

The story of the hole

A popular American story credits a New England ship captain, Hanson Gregory, with punching the hole in the middle of a doughnut in the 1840s so that it would cook evenly. The tale was told and retold in newspapers, but it is a legend rather than documented history. What is clear is that ring-shaped doughnuts became the standard American form during the nineteenth century, while filled, hole-less versions stayed popular in Europe.

How donut appeared

Donut showed up in print in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a simplified spelling. It fit a wider movement in America to trim awkward spellings, the same impulse behind thru and nite (see through vs thru). It stayed fairly marginal at first.

The spelling took off in the mid-twentieth century, when doughnut shop chains in the US adopted donut in their names and signage. Short, phonetic and easy to fit on a sign, donut became the face of the American doughnut shop. Today you will see it on menus, packaging and social media everywhere in the US, while many dictionaries, cookbooks and newspapers continue to list doughnut as the main form.

Spelling by country

Is there a "correct" one?

Both are correct in the sense that dictionaries accept both. But they are not equal in tone:

• Doughnut is neutral and works in any register, from a recipe book to a news report to a legal document.
• Donut is informal and strongly associated with American shops and brands. In the UK and Australia it can look like a deliberate Americanism.

If in doubt, doughnut is never wrong.

Doughnut words that change across borders

The spelling is only half the story. The words people use around doughnuts also shift from country to country, and they can trip you up in a menu, a recipe or a piece of fiction set abroad.

A few points are worth remembering:

• Jelly vs jam: in Britain and Australia, jelly is a set, wobbly dessert (what Americans call gelatin or by a brand name), so a "jelly doughnut" sounds odd there. Use jam doughnut for British and Australian readers.
• Frosting vs icing: Americans use both, but frosting is far more common in the US. British and Australian bakers almost always say icing.
• Hundreds and thousands: this is the traditional British and Australian name for tiny colored sugar balls. Australians will also recognize it from fairy bread, a children's party classic of buttered white bread covered in them.

So a well-written British recipe might say "jam doughnuts with white icing and hundreds and thousands," while an American one might say "jelly donuts with vanilla frosting and sprinkles." Both describe much the same treat.

Example sentences

Everyday

1. I grabbed a coffee and a glazed donut on my way to work in Boston.
2. Hot jam doughnuts from the market van are a Melbourne winter tradition.
3. My daughter wants sprinkles on her doughnut, not icing.
4. We picked up a dozen donuts for the soccer team after practice.
5. The bakery in Bristol sells custard doughnuts that sell out by ten.
6. Do you want the one with the hole or the jam-filled one?

Workplace and email

7. Thanks to everyone who came to Friday's meeting — the donuts were a big hit.
8. As a thank-you, the Leeds office is putting on coffee and doughnuts at eleven.
9. Our new café menu lists four doughnut flavors, all made fresh in-house.
10. Could you order two dozen doughnuts for the Brisbane team's training day?
11. Please keep donut boxes out of the server room.

Academic and technical

12. In topology, a coffee mug and a doughnut are considered equivalent shapes.
13. The doughnut economics model has been discussed by city planners in Amsterdam.
14. The magnetic field inside the reactor forms a doughnut-shaped ring.
15. Food historians trace fried dough cakes back across many European cuisines.

Cars and news-style

16. Police in Ohio arrested a teenager for doing donuts in a school parking lot.
17. Residents complained about drivers doing doughnuts on the oval in western Sydney.
18. If you get a flat, the donut spare will get you to a repair shop, but don't drive it on the freeway.
19. A new doughnut chain has opened its first store in Adelaide, promising "American-style donuts."
20. The council voted to repair the grass after vandals left doughnut marks across the cricket pitch.
21. National Doughnut Day began as a fundraiser and is still celebrated by shops across the US.
22. The cycling path runs around a grassy doughnut of land in the middle of the roundabout.

US vs UK vs Australia

United States

The US is the only major English-speaking country where both spellings are fully at home. Donut is everywhere on storefronts, packaging and menus and is perfectly natural in casual writing. Doughnut remains common in edited prose — magazines, newspapers and cookbooks often prefer it, and some style guides list it as the standard. In practice, you can use either, but formal writers tend to choose doughnut.

United Kingdom

British English uses doughnut as standard. Supermarkets sell ring doughnuts and jam doughnuts, and newspapers use doughnut. Donut appears mainly in the names of American-style chains or trendy independent shops that want an American feel. In formal British writing, donut would usually be changed to doughnut.

Australia

Australian English also prefers doughnut. Australian food writing and supermarket labels typically use doughnut, and the hot jam doughnut is a long-standing treat at markets, fairs and agricultural shows. As in the UK, donut appears in the branding of chains and shops influenced by American style. When describing car stunts, Australians say doughnuts, or informally doughies.

Canada

Canada shares a strong doughnut-shop culture with the US, and donut is extremely common on signage and in everyday writing. More formal Canadian writing often uses doughnut. Both are widely accepted.

What to choose for your writing

Here is a simple decision guide:

1. Writing for a UK, Australian or New Zealand audience? Use doughnut, unless you are naming a business that uses donut.
2. Writing a formal or international document? Use doughnut. It is accepted everywhere.
3. Writing casual American content, a US menu, or brand copy? Donut is fine and may feel more natural.
4. Quoting a brand or shop name? Keep its spelling exactly, even if it differs from the rest of your text.
5. Whatever you choose: be consistent across the page.

The same "formal vs informal variant" pattern appears with through vs thru, where the short form is accepted in some casual American contexts but not in formal writing. For the bigger picture of regional spelling, see the British vs American vs Australian spelling guide.

Common mistakes

❌ I'd love a doghnut with my coffee. ✅ I'd love a doughnut with my coffee. The first part is spelled like dough, the stuff you bake.

❌ (Formal UK report) Staff morale improved after free donuts were introduced. ✅ (Formal UK report) Staff morale improved after free doughnuts were introduced. Doughnut is standard in British writing.

❌ We bought doughnuts for the team and three more donuts for the drive home. (same document) ✅ We bought doughnuts for the team and three more doughnuts for the drive home. Choose one spelling and keep it.

❌ They sell the best donught in town. ✅ They sell the best donut (or doughnut) in town. There is no gh at the end in either spelling.

❌ (British article about a shop called "Big Apple Donuts") We visited Big Apple Doughnuts in Leeds. ✅ (British article) We visited Big Apple Donuts in Leeds. Shop and brand names keep their own spelling, even when your house style says doughnut.

❌ The jelly doughnut was filled with strawberry jelly. (British English) ✅ The jam doughnut was filled with strawberry jam. (British English) In Britain and Australia, jam is the filling; jelly is a wobbly dessert.

A memory trick

"Doughnut is made of dough." If you can remember that the treat is made from dough, you can spell the traditional form: dough + nut.

For when to use the short version, think: "Donut is done quick — like a drive-through." It is fast, casual and American, just like the shops that made it famous.

Practice quiz

Choose the best spelling for each context.

1. (Formal British newspaper) Sales of jam ______ rose during the festival. (doughnuts / donuts)
2. (US coffee shop sign) Fresh ______ every morning! (doughnuts / donuts — which is more typical?)
3. (Australian news) Hoons were caught doing ______ in a car park. (doughnuts / donuts)
4. (Any variety) Spell the traditional form correctly: (doughnut / doghnut / donught)
5. (US driving advice) The ______ spare is only for short trips. (donut / doughnut — which is more common?)
6. (Academic economics paper) The ______ model balances social needs and planetary limits. (doughnut / donut)

Answers

1. doughnuts — the standard spelling in British formal writing.
2. donuts — the typical form on American shop signs.
3. doughnuts — Australian English prefers the traditional spelling.
4. doughnut — dough plus nut.
5. donut — the usual American term for a temporary spare tire.
6. doughnut — the established name of the economic model.

Before you hit publish

Default to doughnut — it is correct in every country and every register. Use donut when you are writing casual American English, quoting a brand, or deliberately evoking an American-style shop. In British and Australian writing, keep donut for names and atmosphere rather than ordinary prose. And whichever spelling ends up on the page, make sure the dozen you mention in paragraph one is spelled the same way as the one you mention at the end.