Confident

How to spell confident

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce confident

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does confident mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling certain about one's own abilities, or sure that something will happen.

Confident in a sentence

• She felt confident that her presentation would impress the board.

• After months of training he was confident enough to run the marathon.

Where does confident come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb confidere, meaning 'to trust fully' or 'to have firm faith', formed from the intensive prefix con- (here adding the sense of 'thoroughly') and fidere, 'to trust'. The present participle confidens, with its stem confident-, described someone in a state of firm trust, and that stem is exactly why English keeps the spelling with -ent rather than -ant. The word arrived in English in the sixteenth century, partly through French, first carrying the sense of placing trust in someone and later settling into its modern meaning of being self-assured. The same fid root that gives us 'trust' also lives on in relatives such as 'fidelity', 'confide', and 'fiance'. A useful spelling note: the related noun for a trusted friend is 'confidant', spelled with an a, while the adjective meaning self-assured keeps the e in confident.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive: thoroughly)
• fid (trust, faith)
• -ent (adjective suffix)