suspicion
/səˈspɪʃ.ən/
suspicion noun: the act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.
Noun
suspicion (countable and uncountable, plural suspicions)
- The act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.
- […]purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout...1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen, Isaac...
- His unruly hair was slicked down with water, and as Jessamy introduced him to Miss Brindle his face assumed a cherubic innocence which would immediately have aroused the suspicions of anyone who knew him.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 96
- The condition of being suspected.
- Uncertainty, doubt.
- In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.[…]Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with...1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- sniff
- A trace, or slight indication.
- a suspicion of a smile
- The features are mild but expressive, with just a suspicion[…]of saturnine or sarcastic humor.1879, Adolphus William Ward, Chaucer
- The imagining of something without evidence.
Verb
suspicion (third-person singular simple present suspicions, present participle suspicioning, simple past and past participle suspicioned)
- To suspect; to have suspicions.
- “Well, what’s more dangerous than coming here in the day time!—anybody would suspicion us that saw us.”1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 202
- Mulvaney continued— "Whin I was full awake the palanquin was set down in a street, I suspicioned, for I cud hear people passin' an' talkin'. But I knew well I was far from home. […]1891, Rudyard Kipling, “The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney”, in Life's Handicap
suspicion meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
suspicion in Hindi
- act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong
- शक śak, संदेह sandeh, गुमान gumān, शुबहा śubhā
suspicion in Tamil
- ஐயவுணர்வு, சந்தேகம்
suspicion in Marathi
- suspicion, doubt
- संशय sauśay
suspicion in Urdu
- act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong
- شَک śak, گُمان gumān, شُبْہَہ śubha, سَنْدیہ sandeh, ظَن zan
More languagesFewer languages
- suspicion in Bengali
- সন্দেহ śondeho
- suspicion in Malayalam
- അനിശ്ചിതത്വം aniścitatvaṁ, സംശയം saṁśayaṁ
- suspicion in Kannada
- ಶಂಕೆ śaṅke
- suspicion in Punjabi
- ਸੰਦੇਹ sandeh
- suspicion in Gujarati
- અંદેશો andeśo
- suspicion in Sanskrit
- शङ्का śaṅkā, सन्देह sandeha
- suspicion in Pashto
- ګمان gomān, واند wānd, وټ waṭ, شک šak
- suspicion in Tagalog
- hinala, suspetsa
- suspicion in Arabic
- اِتِّهَام ittihām, شَكّ šakk, شُبْهَة šubha, اِرْتِيَاب irtiyāb
- suspicion in Malay
- syak
- suspicion in Indonesian
- kecurigaan, syak
- suspicion in Thai
- ความสงสัย kwaam-sǒng-sǎi, ข้อสงสัย kɔ̂ɔ-sǒng-sǎi
- suspicion in Vietnamese
- sự nghi ngờ
- suspicion in Myanmar
- သံသယ samsa.ya.
Examples of suspicion in a sentence
- "When it comes to strangers with guns," I told her, "I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust."1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 11, in The Parable of the Sower:
- Keep hot for 3 minutes, then turn right side up, polish the top with a suspicion of butter, cut in quarters, and send to table.2014 July 3, Dorothy Hartley, Food In England: A complete guide to the food that makes us who we are, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
- "I've been suspicioning here was where they got their information right along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs on the landlord.2012, B. M. Bower, Cow-Country, page 195:
Synonyms of suspicion
Forms of suspicion
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | suspicions |
| alternative form | 'spicion |
| alternative form (obsolete) | suspition |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | suspicions |
| present participle | suspicioning |
| past participle | suspicioned |
| past | suspicioned |
Origin of suspicion
From Middle English suspecioun, borrowed from Latin suspīciō, suspīciōnem, from suspicere, from sub- (“up to”) with specere (“to look at”). Perhaps partly through the influence of Old French sospeçon (or rather the Anglo-Norman form suspecioun). Equivalent to suspect + -ion.
Words formed from suspicion
Words that rhyme with suspicion
- partition
- position
- proposition
- transition
- mission
- condition
- commission
- transmission
- addition
- admission
- attrition
- expedition
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- remission
- rendition
- exhibition
- submission
- ignition
- inhibition
- inquisition
- intromission
- magician
- omission
- tradition
- dentition
- edition
- patrician
- politician
- tuition
- acquisition
- circumposition
- decommission
- fission
- nutrition
- perdition
- permission
- phonetician
- prohibition
- superposition
- volition
- academician
- aesthetician
- Apician
- clinician
- coalition
- disquisition
- emission
- fruition
- Galician
- on a mission
- optician
- postposition
- premonition
- recommission
- retransition
- sedition
- superstition
- titian
- abligurition
- admonition
- adposition
Questions about suspicion
- What does suspicion mean?
- Suspicion means the act of suspecting something or someone, especially of something wrong.
- What is suspicion in Hindi?
- Suspicion in Hindi is शक (śak), संदेह (sandeh), गुमान (gumān). See Suspicion meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use suspicion in a sentence?
- "When it comes to strangers with guns," I told her, "I think suspicion is more likely to keep you alive than trust."
- What part of speech is suspicion?
- Suspicion can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce suspicion?
- Suspicion is pronounced /səˈspɪʃ.ən/.
- What is the plural of suspicion?
- The plural of suspicion is suspicions.
Words near suspicion in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: suspicion (page history and authors); suspicion (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); संशय (Marathi) (page history and authors); ಶಂಕೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਸੰਦੇਹ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); અંદેશો (Gujarati) (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-suspicion.ogg.
Cite this entry: “suspicion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suspicion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.