Word.ws English Dictionary

sourdough

Syllables: sour·doughUK/ˈsaʊəˌdəʊ/US/ˈsaʊɚˌdoʊ/

sourdough noun: a type of bread dough leavened with yeast and lactobacilli that produce acids giving a sour taste.

sourdough: a type of bread dough leavened with yeast and lactobacilli that produce acids giving a sour taste
Image: Tomascastelazo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sourdough (countable and uncountable, plural sourdoughs)

  1. A type of bread dough leavened with yeast and lactobacilli that produce acids giving a sour taste.
    Synonyms:
    sourdough bread
  2. (countable, slang) An old-timer, especially in Alaska.
    • The troops went for those fresh tomatoes like sourdoughs going for gold in the Klondike.1944, Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, University of Nebraska Press (2001), page 80
  3. (Yukon, countable) A permanent resident of the territory. Someone who has lived in the Yukon during all four seasons.
    Antonyms:
    cheechako
  4. (countable, historical) A 49er, a California Gold Rush miner.
  5. (obsolete) Leaven; an agent that makes dough rise.

Noun (2) capitalized: Sourdough

Sourdough (plural Sourdoughs)

  1. (colloquial, dated) A long-time resident of Alaska.

Examples of sourdough in a sentence

  • Customer: I'd like a sesame bagel, please. Waiter: Sorry, hon, we're fresh out of sesame. How about sourdough?
  • And just so we are clear, these are Brevilles, not some sourdough, fried in a pan bollocks.
  • For those who imagine the capital flows with milk and honey, or avocado and sourdough, Edmonton is your rebuttal.

All 19 example sentences with sourdough

Synonyms of sourdough

Antonyms

Forms of sourdough

pluralsourdoughs
alternative formsour dough
pluralSourdoughs

Plural of sourdough: sourdoughs

Origin of sourdough

From Middle English sour dogh, equivalent to sour + dough. Compare Saterland Frisian Suurdee (“sourdough”), Dutch zuurdeeg (“sourdough”), Low German Suurdeeg (“sourdough”), German Sauerteig (“sourdough”), Danish surdej (“sourdough”), Swedish surdeg (“sourdough”), Icelandic súrdeig (“sourdough”). The senses pertaining to California, Alaska and the Yukon derive from the distinctive pouches of bread starter (starter dough used to make sourdough) worn on a belt or around the neck by experienced prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush and California Gold Rush.

From sourdough.

Words formed from sourdough

Phrases with sourdough

Questions about sourdough

What does sourdough mean?
Sourdough means a type of bread dough leavened with yeast and lactobacilli that produce acids giving a sour taste.
What part of speech is sourdough?
Sourdough is a noun.
How do you pronounce sourdough?
Sourdough is pronounced /ˈsaʊɚˌdoʊ/ (US).
What is the plural of sourdough?
The plural of sourdough is sourdoughs.

Words near sourdough in the dictionary

  1. sourdine
  2. sourdines
  3. sourding
  4. sourdock
  5. sourdocks
  6. sourdough
  7. sourdough bread
  8. sourdough breads
  9. sourdoughs
  10. sourds
  11. soured

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sourdough (page history and authors); Sourdough (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-au-sourdough.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sourdough.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sourdough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.