doubts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of doubt.

   The committee raised several doubts about the project's funding.

   Lingering doubts about the diagnosis led her to seek a second opinion.

   Note

   The plural belongs only to the countable side of the noun. Each doubt is a separate misgiving or an open question, so a committee can raise several. The mass use, as in without doubt, has no plural at all. The same spelling is also the verb's present form (she doubts it). A word like several or lingering in front of it marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of doubt.

   The scientist doubts that the results can be repeated.

   My brother doubts the team will win this season.

   Note

   In present-day English the -s form carries the questioning senses. It takes a direct object (she doubts the figures) or a clause (he doubts that it will work), and it can also stand without an object (if anyone doubts, ask). Older English used doubt for dreading something and even for frightening someone. Those senses are archaic or obsolete, so a modern reader should not hear fear in he doubts the outcome.

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