diffidence

Other forms of diffidence

plural

diffidences·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about diffidence

What does diffidence mean?

diffidence means "lack of self-confidence".

How many syllables are in diffidence?

diffidence has 3 syllables: dif-fi-dence. The stress falls on "dif".

What is another word for diffidence?

Close synonyms include self-doubt, self-distrust. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of diffidence?

The recorded antonyms are confidence.

Is diffidence a common word?

diffidence is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.