Dubious

How to spell dubious

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dubious

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dubious mean?

1. adjectiveDoubtful, uncertain, or of questionable value, honesty, or quality.

Dubious in a sentence

• The contract relied on some dubious accounting that the auditor flagged.

• She felt dubious about the salesman's promise of a full refund.

Where does dubious come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin adjective dubius, which meant 'wavering, uncertain, of two minds'. That root is closely tied to duo, the Latin word for 'two', since to be dubius was essentially to hover between two possibilities, unable to settle on one. Latin built the noun dubium ('a doubt') on the same base, and the very same family gives English the everyday word 'doubt'. English adopted dubious in the middle of the sixteenth century, attaching the familiar -ous ending that turns a noun or stem into an adjective meaning 'full of' a quality. Knowing that the spelling keeps the Latin u rather than any 'doubt' style spelling helps explain why it is dubi- and not doub-.

How the word is built

• dubi- (from Latin dubius: wavering, of two minds)
• -ous (adjective suffix meaning full of)