Dubious

//ˈdu.bi.əs// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Arousing doubt; questionable; open to suspicion.

    "After he made some dubious claims about the company, fewer people trusted him."

  2. 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."

  3. 3
    Generally considered imprecise or wrong, but not totally unplayable.
Adjective
  1. 1
    fraught with uncertainty or doubt wordnet
  2. 2
    not convinced wordnet
  3. 3
    open to doubt or suspicion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
doubtfulin questionsuspectambiguousprecariousa bit thick

Example

More examples

"Students are expected to stay away from dubious places."

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin dubiusbor. English dubious From Latin dubius; like doubt, from Latin duo (cognate to English two), implying “two alternatives” (yes or no, true or false, etc.).

Related phrases

dubious honordubious honourdubious tiger moth

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