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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

couth.

Familiar, known; well-known, renowned.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/kuːθ/Received-Pronunciation, Wales/kʉwθ/British, Southern, Standard/kuθ/General-American/kʉːθ/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Familiar, known; well-known, renowned.

    obsolete

  2. Variant of couthie. Agreeable, friendly, pleasant.

    Scotland

  3. Variant of couthie. Comfortable; cosy, snug.

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English couth (“familiar, known; evident, true; famous, respected, well-known; genteel, having good manners”), from Old English cūþ (“familiar, intimate, known, usual; certain, plain, manifest; famous, noted, well-known; excellent; friendly; related”), past participle of cunnan (“to be familiar with, know; can, to be able, know how”), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to be familiar with, know, recognize; to be able, know how”) (compare *kunþaz (“known”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). The word is cognate with Dutch kond (“known”), Saterland Frisian cut (“known”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs, “known”), Icelandic kuður, kunnur (“known”), Latin gnosco (“to know”), Old High German kund, chund, chunt, Middle High German kunt (modern German kund (“known”)), Old Saxon kūth, cûth, cuð (“known; famous, renowned”), Scots couth (“familiar, known”); and is a doublet of could.

adj/kuːθ/Received-Pronunciation, Wales/kʉwθ/British, Southern, Standard/kuθ/General-American/kʉːθ/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; cultured, refined.

Where this word comes from

Back-formation from uncouth.

noun/kuːθ/Received-Pronunciation, Wales/kʉwθ/British, Southern, Standard/kuθ/General-American/kʉːθ/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Social grace, refinement, sophistication; etiquette, manners.

    uncountable · usually
    That man has no couth.

  2. A person with social graces; a refined or sophisticated person.

    rare · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

Back-formation from uncouth.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.