disbelief
/dɪsbɪˈliːf/
disbelief noun: an unpreparedness, unwillingness, or an inability to believe that something is the case.
Noun
disbelief (usually uncountable, plural disbeliefs)
- An unpreparedness, unwillingness, or an inability to believe that something is the case.
- She cried out in disbelief on hearing that terrorists had crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York City.
- 'Smuggling was a way of life here, with no stigma attached,' David explained. His own granny used to smuggle out rabbit meat, tied to her body, and bring back such coveted Italian goods as chocolate, coffee and brooms. 'Brooms?' I asked him in disbelief. 'Yes, ordinary sorghum brooms, which were in...2026 June 24, Vitali Vitaliev, “Life on the borderline”, in RAIL, number 1064, page 68
- Astonishment.
- I stared in disbelief at the Grand Canyon.
- On the streets leading down to the main road to Tiananmen Square, furious people stared in disbelief at the glow in the sky, listening to the sound of shots.1989 June 4, Kate Adie, 0:11 from the start, in Archive: Chinese troops fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square - BBC News, Peking: BBC News, published 2014
- The loss or abandonment of a belief; the cessation of belief.
- There is an agony of suffering in that lingering doubt which haunts the human soul in the beginnings of disbelief.1885, H. J. Hardwicke, “The God Idea”, in The Agnostic: A Monthly Journal of Liberal Thought, volume 1, page 239
- No adolescent can achieve disbelief in the stork without an eruption of young oaths and cynicisms.1927, Gilbert W. Gabriel, “Male, Female and American Drama”, in Vanity Fair, volume 27, number 4, page 73
disbelief meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam
disbelief in Hindi
- unpreparedness, unwillingness, or inability to believe that something is the case
- अविश्वास aviśvās
disbelief in Tamil
- தவறான நம்பிக்கை
disbelief in Marathi
- disbelief, distrust; lack of faith
- अविश्वास aviśvās
disbelief in Malayalam
- scepticism, incredulity, incredulousness
- അവിശ്വാസം, വിശ്വാസരാഹിത്യം, സംശയം, വിശ്വാസശങ്ക, നിഹ്നവം, വിശ്വാസമില്ലായ്മ
- atheism, unbelief, godlessness
- അവിശ്വാസം, ദെെവിശ്വാസമില്ലായ്മ, മതവിരോധം, വിശ്വാസരാഹിത്യം, നാസ്തികത, നാസ്തികത്വം
More languagesFewer languages
- disbelief in Kannada
- ಅಪನಂಬಿಕೆ, ನಂಬಲಸಾಧ್ಯವಾದುದು
- disbelief in Punjabi
- ਕੁਫ਼ਰ kufar
Examples of disbelief in a sentence
- His later left-wing films prevented any pure and strong emotional attachment between the two sexes from gaining narrative momentum, which might reflect his gradual disbelief in romantic love.2002, Laikwan Pang, Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937, →ISBN, page 99:
- Just like the disbelief in Santa Claus happens gradually, I wondered if it was similar for people leaving their faith.2012, Gloria Neufeld Redekop, Bad Girls and Boys Go to Hell (or not): Engaging Fundamentalist Evangelicalism, →ISBN, page 246:
Synonyms of disbelief
Antonyms
Forms of disbelief
| plural | disbeliefs |
|---|
Origin of disbelief
From dis- + belief.
Words formed from disbelief
Phrases with disbelief
Questions about disbelief
- What does disbelief mean?
- Disbelief means an unpreparedness, unwillingness, or an inability to believe that something is the case.
- What is disbelief in Hindi?
- Disbelief in Hindi is अविश्वास (aviśvās). See Disbelief meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use disbelief in a sentence?
- His later left-wing films prevented any pure and strong emotional attachment between the two sexes from gaining narrative momentum, which might reflect his gradual disbelief in romantic love.
- What part of speech is disbelief?
- Disbelief is a noun.
- How do you pronounce disbelief?
- Disbelief is pronounced /dɪsbɪˈliːf/ (UK).
- What is the plural of disbelief?
- The plural of disbelief is disbeliefs.
Words near disbelief in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: disbelief (page history and authors); disbelief (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अविश्वास (Marathi) (page history and authors); disbelief (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); disbelief (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕੁਫ਼ਰ (Punjabi) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-disbelief.wav.
Cite this entry: “disbelief.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/disbelief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.