incredulity

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Lack of belief

Nouns

1. incredulity, incredulousness, skepticism; want of faith (see irreligion); doubt, distrust, suspicion, suspiciousness, scrupulosity, unbelief, disbelief; sophistication, ungullibility. See surprise.

2. unbeliever, disbeliever, skeptic; infidel, heretic.

Verbs — distrust, doubt, disbelieve, refuse to believe, reject (see rejection); ignore, dispute, question. Informal, not swallow.

Adjectives — incredulous, skeptical; sophisticated, ungullible; unbelieving, unconvinced; doubtful, dubious, distrustful, questioning, quizzical, disputing; hesitant, uncertain, suspicious, scrupulous, apprehensive, wary, chary, qualmish; faithless, heretical. Slang, leery, not born yesterday.

Quotations — It was the epoch of incredulity (Charles Dickens).

Antonyms, see credulity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. disbelief, skepticism, amazement, unbelief; see doubt 1 , wonder 1 .

See Synonym Study at unbelief .

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun The refusal or reluctance to believe: disbelief, discredit, incredulousness, unbelief. See BELIEF.