Choose the Right Synonym for dubious

doubtful, dubious, problematic, questionable mean not affording assurance of the worth, soundness, or certainty of something. doubtful implies little more than a lack of conviction or certainty. doubtful about whether I said the right thing dubious stresses suspicion, mistrust, or hesitation. dubious about the practicality of the scheme problematic applies especially to things whose existence, meaning, fulfillment, or realization is highly uncertain. whether the project will ever be finished is problematic questionable may imply no more than the existence of doubt but usually suggests that the suspicions are well-grounded. a man of questionable honesty

Examples of dubious in a Sentence

The recent rumbles and ruptures in the financial markets are finally making people reassess the dubious systems of credit that have arisen in the past few years. — William Safire, New York Times Magazine, 19 Aug. 2007 Thus, the translation of the Latin word biographus as "a biography," and the limitation of "biographies" to written, printed histories of men, was perhaps inevitable. Poor Dryden was given the dubious honor of being the first to use the generic term—despite the fact that his phrase had been taken out of the context of biographical compilers, in a discussion of Plutarch. — Nigel Hamilton, Biography, 2007 That indeed is the crux of the matter. Today especially, when community-oriented policing is being introduced everywhere, it seems not only ethically dubious but self-defeating to engage in practices that at their best undermine trust and cooperation between citizens and law-enforcement officials and at their worst foster cynicism toward our legal system. — Edwin Dobb, Harper's, May 2002 To avoid fees, the new "relationship" minimum for checking accounts jumped from $2000 to as much as $6000. And what would customers get in exchange? The ability to take advantage of such a dubious new benefit as a consolidated monthly statement. — Consumer Reports, March 1996 He made the highly dubious claim that Elvis is still alive and living in Hawaii. a man of dubious character See More

Recent Examples on the Web And Trump made the subject one of his favorite talking points—embellishing it with many dubious claims—during the presidential debates in 2020. — Tristan Bove, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2022 Based on these videos, some of the Bonds for the Win activists appear to believe that their legally dubious claims could succeed, while other organizers have at times signaled that the true intention is to cause disruption. — NBC News, 21 Feb. 2022 If that last question cannot be answered in an advantageous way, then the blow-up option is dubious. — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Apr. 2022 With inflation already rampant, though, the benefits of injecting more cash into the economy are dubious at best. — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 27 Apr. 2022 The report’s section on nursing homes is also dubious. — Daniel Dale, CNN, 30 Mar. 2022 But Williams was still dubious and blamed her for the changes Larry had imposed. — Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Mar. 2022 Whether, for example, China agrees to support Ukraine is dubious. — Jan Smoleński, The New Republic, 22 Mar. 2022 The second installment of the away fixture saw Barca fight tooth and nail, and though Memphis' winning penalty after Ferran Torres levelled the score was dubious, the Xavi effect could clearly be seen once more in all its glory. — Tom Sanderson, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dubious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.