couth
UK/kuːθ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kʉwθ/
couth adjective: familiar, known; well-known, renowned.
Adjective (1)
couth (comparative more couth, superlative most couth)
- Familiar, known; well-known, renowned.
- Antonyms:
- uncouth
- Agreeable, friendly, pleasant.
- Comfortable; cosy, snug.
- Squad leaders were responsible for doing periodic checks to make sure soldiers were living a couth lifestyle, as Joes would compete regularly to see whose room was nicer.2012, La’Vez Robinson Sr., “Deutschland”, in On My Own: Putting the Past behind Me, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 203
Adjective (2)
couth (comparative more couth, superlative most couth)
- Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; cultured, refined.
- So Dennis May thrilled me in a recent issue when he described Raymond Mays' 1939 E.R.A. racer as a "couth" little Merc-like model.1943, Henry Sturmey, H. Walter Staner, The Autocar: A Journal Published in the Interests of the Mechanically Propelled Road Carriage, volume 88, London: Iliffe, Sons & Sturney, →OCLC, page 632...
- Yet the dancers are beautiful, their cool movement has a couth simplicity, and there are moments when a gesture of almost absolute beauty stands transfixed in some transom of sublime comprehension.1991, John Percival, editor, Dance and Dancers, London: Dance & Dancers Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37
- Antonyms:
- uncouth
Noun
couth (usually uncountable, plural couths)
- Social grace, refinement, sophistication; etiquette, manners.
- That man has no couth.
- There is an aspect of the cultural conservative argument that sometimes drifts dangerously close to tha view, elitist to the core, as elitist as the New Class, as elitist as limousine liberalism: The public ain't got no couth. You can hear those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need...1995, Ben[jamin] J[oseph] Wattenberg, “Those Darn Cultural Issues”, in Values Matter Most: How Democrats or Republicans or a Third Party Can Win and Renew the American Way of Life, Washington, D.C....
- A person with social graces; a refined or sophisticated person.
- We transformed the uncouths into couths, the unkempts into kempts, the inerts into erts! We did it all by speaking to teen-agers on their own terms and in their own language.[1967, Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, Macy’s, Gimbels, and Me: How to Earn $90,000 a Year in Retail Advertising, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 91
- I'm going to hit that "Gulf of Texas" beach with a bundle of couths and suaves because those Texas gals that hang around the big shrimp boats are used to good living.1968 November, “C. R. Terror”, in Richard L. Anderson, editor, The MAC Flyer (USAF Recurring Publication; 62-5), volume XV, number 11, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.: Directorate of Safety, Headquarters...
couth meaning in Urdu and Kannada
couth in Urdu
- نجیب, شائستہ
couth in Kannada
- ಸುಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ, ಶಿಷ್ಟಾಚಾರದಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ, ಸಭ್ಯ ನಡವಳಿಯ
Examples of couth in a sentence
- You can hear those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need a few government regulations to deal with the couth shortage.1995, Ben[jamin] J[oseph] Wattenberg, “Those Darn Cultural Issues”, in Values Matter Most: How Democrats or Republicans or a Third Party...
- My daughters have long and inappropriately been members of the Committee to Reform Dad's Hygiene, taking me to task for my supposed lack of couth.2004, W[illiam] Bruce Cameron, “How to Increase a Man’s Couth”, in How to Remodel a Man: Tips and Techniques on Accomplishing Something You...
- Couth and manners are intensely subjective concepts.2005, Heidi Munan, Culture Shock!: Malaysia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock!), Portland, Or.: Graphics Art Center...
- No count and you ain't got a lick of couth.2006, Mark Powell, Blood Kin: A Novel, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 97:
Antonyms of couth
Forms of couth
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more couth |
| superlative | most couth |
| Noun | |
| plural | couths |
Origin of couth
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.
Back-formation from uncouth.
Words that rhyme with couth
Questions about couth
- What does couth mean?
- Couth means familiar, known; well-known, renowned.
- What is couth in Urdu?
- Couth in Urdu is نجیب, شائستہ. See Couth meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use couth in a sentence?
- You can hear those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need a few government regulations to deal with the couth shortage.
- What part of speech is couth?
- Couth can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce couth?
- Couth is pronounced /kuːθ/ (UK).
Words near couth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: couth (page history and authors); couth (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); couth (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-couth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “couth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/couth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.