Word.ws English Dictionary

dos and don'ts

/ˌduːz‿n̩ ˈdəʊnts/US/ˌduz‿n̩ ˈdoʊnts/

dos and don'ts noun: a set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow.

Noun

dos and don'ts pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) A set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow.

Forms of dos and don'ts

alternative formdo's and don'ts
alternative formdo's and don't's

Origin of dos and don'ts

From dos (“plural of do (“something that can or should be done”)”) + and + don’ts (“plural of don’t (“something that must or should not be done”)”).

Questions about dos and don'ts

What does dos and don'ts mean?
Dos and don'ts means a set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow.
What part of speech is dos and don'ts?
Dos and don'ts is a noun.
How do you pronounce dos and don'ts?
Dos and don'ts is pronounced /ˌduːz‿n̩ ˈdəʊnts/ (UK).

Words near dos and don'ts in the dictionary

  1. doré bullions
  2. doré furnace
  3. doré furnaces
  4. dos
  5. dos a dos
  6. dos and don'ts
  7. DOS extender
  8. DOS extenders
  9. Dos Hermanas
  10. Dos Palos
  11. Dos Palos Y

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dos and don'ts (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dos and don'ts.wav.

Cite this entry: “dos and don'ts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dos_and_don%27ts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.