dubious
pronunciation
How to pronounce dubious in British English:
UK [ˈdjuːbiəs]
How to pronounce dubious in American English:
US [ˈduːbiəs]
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- Adjective:
- fraught with uncertainty or doubt
- open to doubt or suspicion
- not convinced
Word Origin
- dubious
- dubious: see doubt
- dubious (adj.)
- 1540s, from Latin dubiosus "doubtful," from dubium "doubt," neuter of dubius "vacillating, moving two ways, fluctuating;" figuratively "wavering in opinion, doubting, doubtful," from duo "two" (see two), with a sense of "of two minds, undecided between two things." Old English also used tweo "two" to mean "doubt." Compare doubt (v.). Related: Dubiously; dubiousness.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Four rio tinto executives were imprisoned in dubious circumstances .
- 2. Most attention focused on dubious claims by autocrats that democracy was not among them .
- 3. The film stresses how societies at war nurture perverse values and dubious heroes .
- 4. But dubious loans weren 't necessarily bad .
- 5. They also forfeited most of their dubious gains .