Meaning of doubt in English

doubt

noun [ C or U ]

/daʊt/ us

/daʊt/

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(a feeling of) not being certain about something, especially about how good or true it is:

have doubts about I'm having doubts about his ability to do the job.

doubt about If there's any doubt about the rocket's engines, we ought to cancel the launch.

doubt over The company's actions have cast doubt over its ability to rescue the loss-making business.

beyond reasonable doubt The prosecution has to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

raise doubts This latest scandal has raised doubts about whether he could win the election.

[ + (that) ] I never had any doubt (that) you would win.

no doubt about that He's the most attractive man in the room, no doubt about that.

no doubt about it No doubt about it, that's the best game I have seen since last year.

no doubt

used to emphasize that what you are saying is true or likely to happen:

We will, no doubt, discuss these issues again at the next meeting.

cast doubt on something

to make something seem uncertain:

Witnesses have cast doubt on the accused's innocence.

in doubt

If the future or success of someone or something is in doubt, it is unlikely to continue or to be successful:

The future of the stadium is in doubt because of a lack of money.

without (a) doubt

used to emphasize your opinion:

She is without (a) doubt the best student I have ever taught.

More examplesFewer examples

There is little doubt that poor medical treatment hastened her death.
There are doubts about the effectiveness of the new drug in treating the disease.
The government expressed serious doubts about the legitimacy of military action .
It's quite natural to experience a few doubts just before you get married.
I always had some doubt about the scheme but I never expressed it.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Suspecting & questioning

See more results »

Grammar

No doubt or without doubt?

We can use no doubt when we think that what we are saying is likely to happen, or when we think it is true. It is similar to ‘I suppose’ or ‘I imagine’: …

doubt

verb [ T ]

/daʊt/ us

/daʊt/

to not feel certain or confident about something or to think that something is not probable:

doubt whether I doubt whether I can finish the work on time.

doubt if I doubt if anyone knows where the key to this lock is.

[ + that ] They had begun to doubt that it could be done.

He may come back tomorrow with the money, but I very much doubt it.

I don't doubt his abilities.

doubt someone/doubt someone's word

to not trust someone or believe what they say:

He's never lied to me before, so I have no reason to doubt his word.

More examplesFewer examples

I doubt whether it'll work.
He gave his word that he would marry her and she had no cause to doubt him.
He'd been behaving so strangely that they began to doubt his sanity.
I only caught a fleeting glimpse of the driver of the getaway car, but I doubt I would recognize her if I saw her again.
No one doubted that the president was a man of the highest integrity.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Suspecting & questioning

See more results »

Grammar

I doubt if, I don’t know whether

We use if or whether to introduce clauses after verbs of doubting: …

(Definition of doubt from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

doubt | American Dictionary

doubt

noun [ C/U ]

/dɑʊt/

Add to word list Add to word list

a feeling of not knowing what to believe or what to do, or the condition of being uncertain:

[ C ] If you have any doubt about her ability, don’t hire her.

[ + that clause ] There’s no doubt that the show will be successful.

[ U ] The future of the entire project is in some doubt.

[ C ] She is without a doubt (= certainly) one of the best students I’ve ever had.

doubt

verb [ T ]

/dɑʊt/

to be uncertain about something or someone, or to have difficulty believing something:

[ T ] He may come back tomorrow with the money, but I doubt it.

(Definition of doubt from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of doubt

doubt

No doubt there is some revised physiological story to be told.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Many will no doubt agree with this conclusion even if they do not agree with the path this book took to reach them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There can indeed be little doubt that the last decade has seen fierce theoretical competition between different perspectives.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Overall, the empirical findings seem consistent with the first assumption of structural description models, but some doubts remain.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He did, and there is no doubt that viewed from 2006, his work suffered accordingly.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The discovery of vortex structures in the turbulent mixing layer raises serious doubts about the validity of self-preservation arguments.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I have argued that there are reasons for doubting that viable fetuses come within the scope of the constraint against harmful using.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Also, we do have doubts about the practicalities of undertaking randomized controlled trials in some circumstances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This fact no doubt constrained the recognition rates for all the tested local pronunciations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Available information is insufficient to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that average temperatures are increasing worldwide.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All of these doubts are epistemologically permissible and quite understandable in view of the existing deep difficulties.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is no doubt that greater thought and energy are directed towards the first objective.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The latter had decided to tell him the truth, and explained that none of the staff doubted his talent.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

No doubt there will be debates about how far determinacy will take us.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is no doubt related to the increased interest in gas centrifuges as a means of separating uranium isotopes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with doubt

doubt

These are words often used in combination with doubt.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

benefit of doubt

In the first case, a new metonym can have the benefit of doubt with critics of economic man and gain some initial sympathy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

considerable doubt

This finding should raise considerable doubt about previous notions that state-level economic prosperity does not impact state election outcomes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

grave doubt

Inquests and discussions with fire officers have shown that there are grounds for grave doubt.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with doubt

What is the pronunciation of doubt?

Translations of doubt

in Chinese (Traditional)

（尤指對好壞、真實性的）懷疑，疑慮，疑問, 懷疑, 不確定，不肯定…

in Chinese (Simplified)

（尤指对好坏、真实性的）怀疑，疑虑，疑问, 怀疑, 不确定，不肯定…

in Spanish

duda, dudar, duda [feminine]…

in Portuguese

dúvida, duvidar, dúvida [feminine]…

in more languages

in Marathi

in Japanese

in Turkish

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in Catalan

in Dutch

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in Hindi

in Gujarati

in Danish

in Swedish

in Malay

in German

in Norwegian

in Urdu

in Ukrainian

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in Italian

एखाद्या गोष्टीबद्दल खात्री नसणे, विशेषत: ती किती चांगली किंवा खरी आहे याबद्दल, शंका…

疑い, ～かどうか疑問だ, 疑（うたが）い…

şüphe, kuşku, şüphelenmek…

doute [masculine], douter, douter de…

dubte, dubtar (de)…

betwijfelen, twijfelen aan, twijfel…

(ஒரு உணர்வு) எதையாவது பற்றி உறுதியாக இல்லாதிருத்தல், குறிப்பாக அது எவ்வளவு நல்லது அல்லது உண்மை என்பது பற்றி, எதையாவது பற்றி உறுதியாகவோ நம்பிக்கையாகவோ உணராமல் இருப்பது அல்லது ஏதோ சாத்தியமில்லை என்று நினைப்பது…

संदेह, संशय, अनिश्चय…

શંકા, શંકાઓ, સંદેહ…

tvivle på, tvivl…

betvivla, tvivla på, tvivel…

keraguan, kesangsian…

bezweifeln, der Zweifel…