Distrust

//dɪsˈtɹʌst// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Lack of trust or confidence. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    the trait of not trusting others wordnet
  3. 3
    doubt about someone's honesty wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To put no trust in; to have no confidence in.

    "Moreover, genuinely conservative governments were inclined to distrust all intellectuals and ideologists, even reactionary ones, for, once the principle of thinking rather than obeying was accepted, the end was in sight."

  2. 2
    regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
mistrustmisgivingmistrustmistrustapprehensionawake a doubt

Example

More examples

"Distrust of people, not to mention hate, is the root of human suffering."

Etymology

From dis- + trust, alteration of the earlier term wantrust.

Related phrases

memory distrust syndromeself-distrust

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.