Skeptic
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Someone who doubts beliefs, claims, plans, etc. that are accepted by others as true or appropriate, especially one who habitually does so. US
"But for the fly he might have made me think He had been at his poetry , comparing Nailhead with fly and fly with huckleberry : How like a fly , how very like a fly . But the real fly he missed would never do ; The missed fly made me dangerously skeptic.[…]"
- 2 someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs wordnet
- 3 Someone who is skeptical towards religion. US
- 1 Skeptical. US
"This view of the Great Pyramid is being adopted by a widening circle of Christian believers, until even a skeptic scientist has dignified it as “the religion of the Pyramid!”"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"In order to be a skeptic, maybe you should not be an expert."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French sceptique (but with a pronunciation closer to that of the Greek etymon), or possibly directly from Late Latin scepticus (originally attested only in the plural Scepticī (“the sect of Skeptics”)), from Ancient Greek σκεπτικός (skeptikós, “thoughtful, inquiring”), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “I consider”), compare to σκοπέω (skopéō, “I view, examine”).
Related phrases
More for "skeptic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.