doughnut

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small sweet cake of fried dough, often ring-shaped or filled

   She chose a jam-filled doughnut with her coffee.

2. 2
   noun

   an object or region shaped like a ring or torus

   The storm formed a doughnut around the calm center on the radar image.

From dough + nut, first recorded in the early nineteenth century. The earliest doughnuts were small round pieces of fried dough, and nut could mean a small rounded cake; the familiar ring shape became common later. Donut is a widely used simplified spelling.

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