# skeptical

Pronunciation: US say "SKEP-ti-kuhl" /ˈskɛptɪkəl/; UK

## Adjective

1. Having or expressing doubt; inclined to question claims rather than accept them at face value.
   - Simple: Doubting that something is true, and wanting proof before believing it.
   - _Scientists remained skeptical of the new theory until the data were replicated._
   - _He gave the politician's apology a skeptical look and said nothing._
2. Relating to philosophical skepticism, or to the school of philosophers known as the skeptics.
   - Simple: Belonging to a kind of philosophy that doubts whether we can truly know anything for sure.
   - _Ancient skeptical philosophers argued that we should suspend judgment on questions we cannot settle._
   - _The thesis traces a skeptical tradition running from Pyrrho to the modern empiricists._

## Origin

This word comes from Latin "scepticus" combined with the suffix "-al," and it was actually recorded earlier than the noun "skeptic." On the surface, it can be analyzed as "skeptic" plus "-al."

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