Definition of DUBIOUSNESS

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

Recent Examples on the Web

The Hassan Whiteside deal was necessary, but any operative gain from it is dubious. — Ira Winderman, sun-sentinel.com, "ASK IRA: Is One Last Dance 2.0 on the way?," 10 Aug. 2019 Mastodon the software will investigate ways to help mods deal with large numbers of duplicate reports and blacklisting reports from dubious sources. — Megan Farokhmanesh, The Verge, "Twitter rival Mastodon isn’t safe from online mobs either," 31 Aug. 2018 But these genomic changes could not completely account for the bats’ ability to thrive solely on their dubious food source. — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, "Gut bacteria key to the vampire bat’s ability to survive on blood," 1 Mar. 2018 But the company’s advertising follows a long history of tobacco products that made dubious safety claims. — Wired, "FDA Says Juul Can't Claim to Be Safer Than Cigarettes," 9 Sep. 2019 In June, Baum said organizers handed out vegan coconut milkshakes to supporters that, contrary to dubious claims by Portland police, didn’t contain liquid cement. — oregonlive.com, "Portland protests to feature banana costumes, poop emojis and fundraisers for immigrants," 16 Aug. 2019 Upcoming Sunday ■ Sweden vs. Thailand, Group F, Nice — The Swedes might be tempted to pile it on Thailand in case the group lead comes down to goal difference, though the advantages of earning a top seed seem dubious. — Frank Dell’apa, BostonGlobe.com, "Netherlands latest European team to advance at Women’s World Cup," 15 June 2019 But his pawn structure was dubious, and Carlsen capitalized on a blunder and won. — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, "Magnus Carlsen Was Defeated, But the Draw Remains Dominant in Chess," 30 Aug. 2019 Borrowing oodles of money to buy back shares at the end of an economic cycle, when share prices are near record highs, may seem especially dubious for highly indebted companies like AT&T and American Airlines. — Larry Light, Fortune, "More than Half of All Stock Buybacks are Now Financed by Debt. Here’s Why That’s a Problem," 20 Aug. 2019

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.