Doubt & Skepticism Vocabulary

not easily convinced; having doubts

“Scientists are naturally skeptical of extraordinary claims.”

unwilling or unable to believe something

“She gave him an incredulous look when he claimed innocence.”

hesitating or doubting; not to be relied upon

“The origins of this artifact are dubious at best.”

neither believing nor disbelieving; uncertain

“He remained agnostic on the question of extraterrestrial life.”

having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas

“She felt ambivalent about accepting the promotion.”

open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous

“His equivocal response satisfied no one.”

not certain or fixed; provisional

“The conclusions are tentative pending further research.”

arranged or existing for the present, possibly to change

“This is only a provisional agreement.”

an opinion based on incomplete information

“We can only conjecture about their motives.”

to suppose that something is true without evidence

“I can only surmise what happened that night.”

to form a theory without firm evidence

“Experts speculate about the causes of the crash.”

to put forward as a hypothesis

“Scientists hypothesize that dark matter exists.”