# suspicion

Pronunciation: say "suh-SPISH-uhn" /səˈspɪʃ.ən/

## Noun

1. The act of believing, often without firm proof, that a person or thing is responsible for something wrong.
   - Simple: The act of believing that someone has done something wrong.
   - _The detective's suspicion settled on the gardener after he changed his story._
   - _Years of broken promises had filled her with suspicion toward every salesman she met._
2. The condition of being suspected of guilt or wrongdoing by others.
   - Simple: The state of being thought to have done something wrong.
   - _The accountant remained under suspicion long after the audit had cleared everyone else._
   - _Being the last to leave the office placed him squarely under suspicion._
3. The forming of a belief about something in the absence of any supporting evidence.
   - Simple: A belief that something is true even when there is no proof for it.
   - _He had a nagging suspicion that the deal was too good to be true._
   - _A vague suspicion of being followed kept her glancing over her shoulder._
4. A slight trace or faint hint of something, barely enough to detect.
   - Simple: A very small amount or trace of something, just barely noticeable.
   - _The sauce carried only a suspicion of garlic, easy to miss entirely._
   - _A suspicion of frost still lingered on the grass at dawn._
5. A general feeling of uncertainty or doubt about something.
   - Simple: A feeling of doubt about whether something is true or right.
   - _She trusted the report without the slightest suspicion of error._
   - _Lingering suspicion about the figures led the board to request a second review._

## Verb

6. To suspect someone or something, or to have suspicions about a matter. *(dialectal)*
   - Simple: To think that someone has done wrong or that something is true.
   - _I suspicion she knows a good deal more than she's letting on._
   - _Folks around here suspicion any stranger who comes asking too many questions._

## Origin

From Middle English suspecioun, borrowed from Latin suspīciō, from suspicere, combining sub- ('up to') with specere ('to look at'). It came perhaps partly through the influence of Old French sospeçon or the Anglo-Norman form suspecioun, and is equivalent to suspect + -ion.

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