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# Why the silent letter b appears in the English words debt and doubt
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/okazyvaetsia-chto-strannaia-neproiznosimaia-b-v-slovakh-debt-i-doubt-dovolno-pozdnee-privnesenie/
- Published: 2025-04-05T08:36:42.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:42:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Observations, Science

It turns out that the strange silent “b” in “debt” and “doubt” is a fairly late addition. Borrowed from the French “dette” and “doute”, the words displeased the English intellectuals of the sixteenth century, who resolved to add a “b” to the spelling in order to point to the Latin descent of the words from “debitum” and “dubitare”