# insecure

Pronunciation: US say "in-suh-KYUUR" /ɪnsəˈkjʊɹ/; UK say "in-suh-KYOOR" /ɪnsəˈkjʊə(ɹ)/

## Adjective

1. Lacking comfort or confidence in oneself or in particular situations.
   - Simple: Not confident about yourself, or feeling worried and unsure in some situations.
   - _She felt insecure about her abilities when she joined the senior team._
   - _Years of harsh criticism left him deeply insecure around authority figures._
2. Not firmly fixed, safe, or protected; liable to give way or fail.
   - Simple: Not safe, or not held in place firmly enough to be trusted.
   - _The bridge's insecure foundations worried the inspecting engineers._
   - _Refugees often face an insecure existence with no guarantee of shelter._

## Origin

Formed from in- ("not") plus secure, or from Medieval Latin insēcūrus, which combines in- ("un-, non-") with sēcūrus ("safe, certain"). It is a piecewise doublet of unsecure and unsure.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/insecure (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).