SCEPTICISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scepticism mean? 

• SCEPTICISM (noun)
  The noun SCEPTICISM has 1 sense:

1. the disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge

  Familiarity information: SCEPTICISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCEPTICISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

agnosticism; scepticism; skepticism

Hypernyms ("scepticism" is a kind of...):

disbelief; unbelief (a rejection of belief)

Derivation:

sceptical (denying or questioning the tenets of especially a religion)

sceptical (marked by or given to doubt)

 Context examples 

But Emma still shook her head in steady scepticism.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I was so hurt by her coldness and scepticism, that the tears rose to my eyes.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

From the assurance of Professor Challenger's manner—and in spite of the continued scepticism of Professor Summerlee—I have no doubt that our leader will make good his statement, and that we are really on the eve of some most remarkable experiences.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have no doubt that you feel the same way yourself, and that you would not care to stake the whole credit of the Gazette upon this adventure until we can meet the chorus of criticism and scepticism which such articles must of necessity elicit.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whereupon I told her not to mind his badinage; and she, on her part, evinced a fund of genuine French scepticism: denominating Mr. Rochester un vrai menteur, and assuring him that she made no account whatever of his contes de fee, and that du reste, il n'y avait pas de fees, et quand meme il y en avait: she was sure they would never appear to him, nor ever give him rings, or offer to live with him in the moon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)