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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

skeptical.

Having, or expressing doubt; questioning.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈskɛptɪkəl/
  1. Having, or expressing doubt; questioning.

    US
    My teacher was skeptical when I told her my dog ate my homework.
    Tom was skeptical when Paul told him that he saw Bigfoot.
  2. Of or relating to philosophical skepticism or the skeptics.

    US
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti Proto-Hellenic *sképt͏̌omai Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós) Ancient Greek σκεπτικός (skeptikós)bor. Latin scepticus Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English skeptical From Latin scepticus + -al; attested earlier than skeptic. By surface analysis, skeptic + -al.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.