doubtful

1. 1.

   open to doubt or suspicion

   “the candidate's doubtful past”

   “he has a dubious record indeed”

   “what one found uncertain the other found dubious or downright false”

   “it was more than dubitable whether the friend was as influential as she thought”

   Synonymsdubiousdubitablein question

   Similarquestionable
2. 2.

   fraught with uncertainty or doubt

   “they were doubtful that the cord would hold”

   “it was doubtful whether she would be admitted”

   “dubious about agreeing to go”

   Synonymsdubious

   Similaruncertain
3. 3.

   unsettled in mind or opinion

   “drew a few tentative conclusions”

   Synonymstentative

   Similarunsettled

Other forms of doubtful

comparative

doubtfuller·

superlative

doubtfullest·

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 doubtful

What does doubtful mean?

doubtful means "open to doubt or suspicion". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in doubtful?

doubtful has 2 syllables: doubt-ful. The stress falls on "doubt". In IPA it is /ˈdaʊtfəl/.

What is another word for doubtful?

Close synonyms include dubious, dubitable, in question, dubious, tentative. 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.

Is doubtful a common word?

doubtful is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.