dubious
UK/ˈd͡ʒuː.bi.əs//ˈdu.bi.əs/
dubious adjective: arousing doubt; questionable; open to suspicion.
Adjective
dubious (comparative more dubious, superlative most dubious)
- Arousing doubt; questionable; open to suspicion.
- After he made some dubious claims about the company, fewer people trusted him.
- They were renowned as people of dubious morals.
- In disbelief; wavering, uncertain, or hesitating in opinion; inclined to doubt; undecided.
- She was dubious about my plan at first, but later I managed to persuade her to cooperate.
- Last year, President Obama had large majorities in Congress and hopes of passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Next year, he faces a new Congress much more dubious about the reality of climate change and considerably more hostile to international efforts to deal with it.2010, John M. Broder, "Global Climate-Change Talks Begin in Cancun With More Modest Expectations", New York Times, November 30, Section A, Column 0, Foreign Desk, page 12
- Generally considered imprecise or wrong, but not totally unplayable.
dubious meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
dubious in Hindi
- arousing doubt
- संदेहास्पद sandehāspad
dubious in Tamil
- ஐயத்திற்கிடமான, ஐயுறவுக்குரிய, கேள்விக்கிடமான, தெளிவற்ற, நம்பகமற்ற
dubious in Urdu
- دھندھلا, مشکوک, مبہم
dubious in Bengali
- সন্দেহজনক
More languagesFewer languages
- dubious in Malayalam
- തീർച്ചയില്ലാത്ത, ചഞ്ചലമായ, അവ്യക്തമായ, സംശയാസ്പദമായ
- dubious in Kannada
- ನಂಬಲಾಗದ, ಸಂದೇಹಪೂರಿತ, ಅವಿಶ್ವಸನೀಯ, ನೆಚ್ಚಲಾಗದ
- dubious in Sanskrit
- वैकल्पिक vaikalpika
Examples of dubious in a sentence
- The loan shark added another 10% as the risk premium for an especially dubious borrower.
- The attribution of the quote is widely regarded as dubious.
- The detective's reconstruction of what happened that night is dubious.
Forms of dubious
| comparative | more dubious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most dubious |
Origin of dubious
From Latin dubius; like doubt, from Latin duo (cognate to English two), implying “two alternatives” (yes or no, true or false, etc.).
Words formed from dubious
- dubious honor
- dubious honour
- dubiously
- dubiousness
- dubious tiger moth
- indubious
- superdubious
- undubious
Phrases with dubious
Questions about dubious
- What does dubious mean?
- Dubious means arousing doubt; questionable; open to suspicion.
- What is dubious in Hindi?
- Dubious in Hindi is संदेहास्पद (sandehāspad). See Dubious meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dubious?
- Dubious is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce dubious?
- Dubious is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒuː.bi.əs/ (UK).
Words near dubious in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dubious (page history and authors); dubious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dubious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dubious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dubious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dubious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); वैकल्पिक (Sanskrit) (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-dubious.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dubious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dubious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
