sceptical
/ˈskɛptɪk(ə)l
/(US skeptical)
adjective
1Not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations: the public were deeply sceptical about some of the proposals...
- You do get functionally sceptical and tend to doubt what people tell you.
- A very interesting study claims that skeptical consumers are more easily won with emotion.
- Although most respondents were enthusiastic or supportive of booking, about a quarter were sceptical or not convinced of its value.
Synonyms
dubious, doubtful, having reservations, taking something with a pinch of salt, doubting, questioning;
cynical, distrustful, mistrustful, suspicious, disbelieving, misbelieving, unconvinced, incredulous, hesitant, scoffing;
pessimistic, defeatist
informal iffy
rare Pyrrhonist, minimifidian
2 Philosophy Relating to the theory that certain knowledge is impossible.The Cyrenaics are notable mainly for their empiricist and skeptical epistemology and their sensualist hedonism....
- Accordingly, to deprive us of knowledge, sceptical hypotheses need only to be bare logical possibilities.
- If the transcendental philosophy is not a version of Leibnizian rationalism, why is it not a repetition of the sceptical empiricism of Hume?
Derivatives
sceptically
/ (US skeptically) adverb ...- Vivian eyed him skeptically suddenly feeling a fury build up in her.
- But they are on stronger grounds when they look skeptically at the way our damages are distributed.
- He glanced skeptically around the table and saw each one of his Japanese counterparts consuming the little critters in one gulp.