doubtful
Syllables: doubt·ful/ˈdaʊtfəl/
doubtful adjective: subject to, or causing doubt.
Adjective
doubtful (comparative more doubtful, superlative most doubtful)
- Subject to, or causing doubt.
- Experiencing or showing doubt, skeptical.
- Undecided or of uncertain outcome.
- Fearsome, dreadful.
- Improbable or unlikely.
- Suspicious, or of dubious character.
- Yet it is not the predominant views of the experts but the views of a minority, mostly of rather doubtful standing in their profession, which are taken up and spread by the intellectuals.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 419
- Unclear or unreliable.
- The pupils of her great eyes were large in the doubtful lamplight, swallowing their green fires in deep pools of mystery and darkness.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, “395–396”, in The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC
Noun
doubtful (plural doubtfuls)
- A doubtful person or thing.
- They had their lists of Liberals and of the doubtfuls who still remained doubtful. As the election drew near, the force of the whole organization was turned upon these unrepentant doubtfuls.1976, Kenneth Gibbons, Donald Cameron Rowat, Political Corruption in Canada: Cases, Causes and Cures, page 45
doubtful meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
doubtful in Hindi
- subject to, or causing doubt
- संदेहास्पद sandehāspad
- experiencing or showing doubt
- संदेहास्पद sandehāspad
doubtful in Tamil
- ஐயமுள்ள, சந்தேகத்திற்குரிய
doubtful in Marathi
- संशयी
doubtful in Urdu
- doubtful; dubious
- مشکوک maśkūk
- doubtful
- اشتباہی iśtibāhī
More languagesFewer languages
- doubtful in Telugu
- సంశయాత్మకమైన saṁśayātmakamaina
- doubtful in Malayalam
- സംശയമുളള, അവിശ്വസിക്കുന്ന, തീർച്ചയില്ലാത്ത, സന്ദേഹപ്പെടത്തക്ക
Examples of doubtful in a sentence
- I find it exceedingly doubtful that any person groks quantum mechanics.
- The candidate gave lip service to fixing the problems, but it is doubtful that he will do much.
- It's doubtful that anyone alive today will ever see a Geopbyte hard drive.
Forms of doubtful
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more doubtful |
| superlative | most doubtful |
| alternative form | doubtfull |
| Noun | |
| plural | doubtfuls |
Origin of doubtful
From Middle English doutfull, douteful, equivalent to doubt + -ful.
Words formed from doubtful
Questions about doubtful
- What does doubtful mean?
- Doubtful means subject to, or causing doubt.
- What is doubtful in Hindi?
- Doubtful in Hindi is संदेहास्पद (sandehāspad). See Doubtful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is doubtful?
- Doubtful can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce doubtful?
- Doubtful is pronounced /ˈdaʊtfəl/.
Words near doubtful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: doubtful (page history and authors); doubtful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doubtful (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); اشتباہی (Urdu) (page history and authors); doubtful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-doubtful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “doubtful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doubtful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.