adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Having, or expressing doubt; questioning. US

   "My teacher was skeptical when I told her my dog ate my homework."

2. 2
   Of or relating to philosophical skepticism or the skeptics. US

Adjective

1. 1
   denying or questioning the tenets of especially a religion wordnet
2. 2
   marked by or given to doubt wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

disbelievingagnosticambiguouscapriciouscautiouschancy

Example

More examples

"People are often quite skeptical about things unless given believable proof."

Etymology

From Latin scepticus + -al; attested earlier than skeptic. By surface analysis, skeptic + -al.

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