Word.ws English Dictionary

dubious

UK/ˈd͡ʒuː.bi.əs//ˈdu.bi.əs/

dubious adjective: arousing doubt; questionable; open to suspicion.

Adjective

dubious (comparative more dubious, superlative most dubious)

  1. (matter, or thing) 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.
  2. 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
  3. 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.

All 40 example sentences with dubious

Forms of dubious

comparativemore dubious
superlativemost 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

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

  1. Dubinskys
  2. dubiofossil
  3. dubiofossils
  4. dubiosities
  5. dubiosity
  6. dubious
  7. dubious honor
  8. dubious honors
  9. dubious honour
  10. dubious honours
  11. dubiously

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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Cite this entry: “dubious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dubious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.