These words refer to a lack of conviction that results in a reluctance to believe something or an inability to decide. Doubt is the most general of these and has the widest application. It can indicate dissent from a proposition because of evidence to the contrary though this evidence falls short of being conclusive: there were growing doubts about the victory statement, based on scattered reports coming in from remote battle stations. More often the word indicates a lack of full assent to a proposition that evidence alone can neither confirm nor deny: he expressed considerable doubt that man was innately good. In this sense, a lack of faith or trust may be indicated by the word: doubt about the existence of God; the first doubts concerning her husband’s affection for her. The phrase in doubt refers to something still unsettled or in question: the result of the election remained in doubt until the next morning. The word, used alone, can also reflect this lack of decisiveness: tormented by doubt , he stood at the intersection of the two paths, not knowing which to take.

Dubiety can function as a considerably more formal substitute for doubt . The word may impart the notion of actively calling something into question rather than simply being passively unsure: a touch of dubiety in his voice as he asked her to repeat her outrageous accusation. On the other hand, the word can suggest a wavering between conclusions.

This last possibility for dubiety makes it a more formal substitute for uncertainty , which stresses wavering indecision for whatever reason, particularly as it relates to choice or outcome: she expressed uncertainty about which man she should marry. Suspicion more often concentrates on a single possibility, rather than on alternatives, and indicates a questioning uncertainty that something is what it purports to be: the first suspicions that their marriage would fail.

Scepticism is considerably more decisive in tone than the other words here, pointing to an unwavering posture of doubt until faced with undeniable proof: He greeted her protestations of innocence with amused scepticism . Often the word suggests a rationalistic or scientific attitude ?or an irreverent attitude towards the claims of religion or the occult: the necessary scepticism of the science towards new scientific theories; talking to the medium had only increased his scepticism about spiritualism.