confidence
Pluralconfidences (some meanings)
- 1A firm belief in one's own abilities, judgment, or power to succeed.
Years of practice gave the musician the confidence to improvise on stage.
He walked into the negotiation with quiet confidence.
UsageYou have confidence but are confident; before a verb, the confidence to: the confidence to speak up.
Similarassurance, self-assurance, poise, self-belief, aplomb
Oppositeinsecurity, self-doubt, diffidence, timidity
- 2A feeling of certainty or firm trust that someone or something is reliable or true.
Investors expressed confidence in the company's long-term strategy.
Her confidence in the plan never wavered, even when others doubted it.
UsageHave confidence in someone or something; people lose or regain it; a vote of confidence shows support.
Similartrust, faith, belief, reliance, conviction
Oppositedistrust, mistrust, doubt, skepticism
Note
The noun takes in before what is trusted, as when the King James Bible of 1611 warns against putting confidence in princes. To take someone into your confidence, as Arthur C. Clarke writes, edges toward the "keeping secrets" meaning.
- 3The trust that a person given private information will keep it to themselves and not repeat it to others.
Leaking the internal memo to reporters was a serious breach of confidence.
He took his sister into his confidence and admitted that the business was failing.
UsageMostly in set phrases: tell someone in confidence, take someone into your confidence, a breach of confidence.
Similarconfidentiality
Less common meanings
- 4A piece of information shared privately with the trust that it will be kept secret.
He shared a confidence with his closest friend that he had told no one else.
Betraying a confidence can destroy a long friendship.
UsageYou share, keep or betray a confidence; in confidence is different: it describes how something is told.
Similarsecret
Note
Here the word turns concrete and countable: a confidence is something told, and the plural counts the tellings, as in Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" (1899): "in the course of these confidences." The uncountable phrase in confidence names the manner of telling instead. A remark made in confidence carries the same expectation of secrecy, though no single secret need be meant.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Joseph Conrad wrote the work titled The Heart of Darkness in its original serialization. en.wikisource.org
- The work was first published in 1899. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted phrase occurs in the work, in Marlow's narration. en.wikisource.org
- 5Boldness carried to the point of presumption; brash self-assertion that oversteps what is proper.
Similarpresumption, audacity, effrontery, impudence, brashness
Oppositemodesty, humility, deference
Note
An older, sharper use in which confidence is a fault rather than a virtue: the boldness of someone who presumes too much. It is now dated, so in older prose read it as a possible reproach where a modern reader expects praise. In contemporary writing, presumption or effrontery says this plainly. Confidence alone will be heard as self-assurance, with none of the sting.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Confidence has an older, reproachful sense meaning boldness or presumption. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
This word came through Middle English confidence from Latin cōnfīdentia, possibly by way of Old French confidence. It traces back to the Latin verb cōnfīdō ("believe, confide in"), formed from con- ("with") plus fīdō ("trust").
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Confidence came through Middle English from Latin, possibly via Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin source traces back to cōnfīdō, meaning believe or confide in. en.wiktionary.org
- Cōnfīdō combines con-, meaning with, and fīdō, meaning trust. en.wiktionary.org