troth

/tɹəʊθ/US/tɹoʊθ/

troth noun: an oath, pledge, plight, or promise.

Noun

troth (countable and uncountable, plural troths)

(archaic, countable) An oath, pledge, plight, or promise.
- By my troth I care not, a man can die but once, we owe God a death, [...]c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600...
- And by my faith and troth I have a good part of a mind to have thee beaten for thine insolence!1883, Howard Pyle, “The Shooting-match at Nottingham Town”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part first, page 32
1. (archaic, countable) A pledge or promise to marry someone.
  - ...I envy not the beast that takes
    His license in the field of time,
    Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
    To whom a conscience never wakes;
    Nor, what may count itself as blest,
    The heart that never plighted troth
    But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;...1850, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto XXVII
  - It follows, as a natural consequence, that the two who stood alone in the new faith, [...] should, finally, make mutual confession of the passion that had surprised both, in the early pride of man and womanhood; should exchange rings, and plight troths where the pleasaunce joined the river, as...1872 June, Mar Travers, “The Lord of Misrule”, in The Nautical Magazine for 1872: A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs, volume XLI (New Series), London: Simpkin, Marshall...
2. (archaic, countable) The state of being thus pledged; betrothal, engagement.
  - I did, therefore, what an honest man should; restored the maiden her troth, and departed the country, in the service of my king.1826, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter XIV, in The Last of the Mohicans; a Narrative of 1757. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea— […], →OCLC, page 248
(archaic) Truth; something true.
- [John] Martiall, much like to Virgil's Sinon, (of whom he took a precedent, to make an artificial lie,) for three leaves together, in his preface, telleth undoubted trothes; to the end that the falsehoods, which, foolishly, (God wot,) he doth infer, may have the more credit.1565, [James Calfhill], “The Preface to the Readers”, in An Avnswere to the Treatise of the Crosse: […], imprinted at London: By Henry Denham, for Lucas Harryson, →OCLC; republished as Richard...
- I can̄ot lerne Banister's confession upon the racke as yet; but he was put to the racke for denying of moost manifest trothes at the first.1571 September 21, Hugh Fitz William, quotee, “Cabala, sive Scrinia Sacra: Mysteries of State and Government, in Letters of Illustrious Persons and Great Ministers of State, as well Foreign and...

Verb

troth (third-person singular simple present troths, present participle trothing, simple past and past participle trothed)

(obsolete) To pledge to marry somebody.

Proper noun capitalized: Troth

Troth (plural Troths)

A surname transferred from the nickname.

troth meaning in Persian

troth in Persian

state of being pledged to marry someone; betrothal, engagement: وفا vafâ

Examples of troth in a sentence

Hagen of Troneg now foully broke his troth to Siegfried.1909, “Adventure XVI: How Siegfried was Slain”, in Daniel Bussier Shumway, transl., The Nibelungenlied: Translated from the Middle High...
Troth but it was fitting speech for the moonlight: moonlight, the bright and clear, but the cold—which, unlike the sun, opens no flowers, and ripens no fruit.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry...

Forms of troth

Noun
plural	troths
Verb
third-person singular present	troths
present participle	trothing
past participle	trothed
past	trothed
Proper noun
plural	Troths

Origin of troth

From Middle English troth, trothe, trouthe, trowthe, a variant of treuth, treuthe, treouthe (“allegiance, fidelity, faithfulness, loyalty; oath, pledge, promise; betrothal or marriage vow; betrothal; honour, integrity; holiness, righteousness; confidence, trust; creed, faith; fact, reality, truth”), from Old English trēowþ, trīewþ (“truth, veracity; faith, fidelity; covenant, pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō (“contract; promise”), equivalent to true + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Doublet of truth.

From troth, a nickname for someone who was inclined to take oaths.

Words formed from troth

Words that rhyme with troth

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

wroth

Questions about troth

What does troth mean?: Troth means an oath, pledge, plight, or promise.
What is troth in Persian?: Troth in Persian is وفا (vafâ). See Troth meaning in Persian.
How do you use troth in a sentence?: Hagen of Troneg now foully broke his troth to Siegfried.
What part of speech is troth?: Troth can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce troth?: Troth is pronounced /tɹəʊθ/ (UK).
What is the plural of troth?: The plural of troth is troths.

Words near troth in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: troth (page history and authors); Troth (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-troth2.wav.

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