Did you know?
Based on its spelling, you might think that redoubt shares its origin with words such as doubt and redoubtable, both of which come from the Latin verb dubitare, meaning "to be in doubt." But that's not the case. Redoubt actually comes to us (via the French word redoute and the Italian word ridotto) from a different Latin verb—reducere, meaning "to lead back," the same root that gives us reduce. How that b ended up in redoubt is a lingering question, but some etymologists have posited that the word might have been conflated with another redoubt—a now-archaic verb meaning "to regard with awe, dismay, or dread" which, unlike its twin, does indubitably come from dubitare.
Examples of redoubt in a Sentence
Scott Eden, Rolling Stone, 1 Feb. 2026
Now his officers are under siege from all sides, and the command center at the downtown Minneapolis precinct is their redoubt.
—Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2026
Appointed in 1999, Cipriani had sought to assert control over the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, widely viewed as a redoubt of liberation theology.
—Paul Elie, New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2026
By age 21, Reiner was where all the cool kids wanted to be — in the writers’ room at The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the only countercultural redoubt on squaresville television.
—Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 29 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for redoubt
Cite this Entry
“Redoubt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redoubt. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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