reh-DOW-tuh-bul
Definition
(adjective) Inspiring fear or awe through formidable strength, skill, or force of character; commanding deep respect.
Example
The redoubtable general had never lost a campaign — not because he was ruthless, but because no opponent had ever managed to outthink him.
Word Origin
Redoubtable derives from the Old French redoutable, meaning “to be feared,” from redouter — “to dread” — built from re- (used as an intensifier) and douter, meaning “to doubt” or “to fear.” The sense of the prefix here is not repetition but amplification — something so formidable it doubles the fear back on itself. It entered English in the 15th century, used almost exclusively to describe warriors, commanders, and opponents of exceptional and fearsome capability.
Fun Fact
The word’s military history runs deep — redoubtable was the name of a French 74-gun warship that fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and achieved the most consequential single shot in naval history. It was a sharpshooter aboard the Redoubtable who fatally wounded Admiral Horatio Nelson at the height of the battle — the most celebrated and most mourned death in British naval history. The ship itself was captured and then sank in a storm two days later, but its name — and the word it embodied — became permanently attached to one of history’s most dramatic moments.
