suspicious

adjective sus·pi·cious \ sə-ˈspi-shəs \

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

Examples: suspicious in a Sentence

Definition of suspicious

1 : tending to arouse suspicion : questionable

suspicious characters

2 : disposed to suspect : distrustful

suspicious of strangers

3 : expressing or indicative of suspicion

a suspicious glance

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suspiciously

adverb

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suspiciousness

noun

See suspicious defined for English-language learners

See suspicious defined for kids

Examples of suspicious in a Sentence

We were instructed to report any suspicious activity in the neighborhood.
The suspicious vehicle was reported to police.
Suspicious characters were seen hanging around the bank.
He found a suspicious lump on his back and was afraid it might be cancer.
Officials are suspicious about her death.
His manner made me suspicious.

Recent Examples of suspicious from the Web

Trump speaks fondly of Putin and a desire for better relations with Moscow, but the rest of his executive branch remains highly critical and deeply suspicious of the Russian president and the Kremlin’s intentions.

— matthew lee, BostonGlobe.com, "Trump wish for warm Putin ties highlights policy disconnect," 14 July 2018
Image Friday the 13th is the patron day of black cat crossings, devious witches, shattered mirrors, suspicious ladders — and cheap tattoos.

— zoe greenberg, New York Times, "Friday the 13th, a ‘Tattoo Holiday’," 13 July 2018
Twitter’s purge of suspicious accounts Wednesday has resulted in the social media platform's most popular users taking big hits to their number of followers.

— lukas mikelionis, Fox News, "Twitter purge means fewer followers for Trump, Obama, Justin Bieber," 13 July 2018
From former President Barack Obama to Justin Bieber, the internet’s biggest social media influencers lost millions of Twitter followers Thursday as the platform began a massive purge of suspicious accounts.

— casey quackenbush, Time, "Celebrities Are Losing Millions of Followers as Twitter Slashes Fake Accounts," 13 July 2018
Some of Twitter's top accounts lost millions of followers to the social media' company's ongoing purge of fake and suspicious accounts, the New York Times reports.

— derek hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: House Democrats list states with weakest election security in new report," 13 July 2018
Overall, the suspicious ads on Facebook and Instagram were seen by more than 140 million people in the United States.

— ronald j. hansen, azcentral, "Arizona servers used by Russian hackers to monitor Democrats, feds say," 13 July 2018
Buy Photo Police Thursday night were investigating the suspicious death of a 6-year-old boy in Southwest Philadelphia.

— robert moran, Philly.com, "Police investigating death of boy, 6, in Southwest Philly," 12 July 2018
Anchorage fire crews doused a suspicious fire Tuesday night at the playground of Mountain View Elementary School.

— zaz hollander, Anchorage Daily News, "Playground fire at Mountain View school draws arson investigation," 12 July 2018

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

First Known Use of suspicious

14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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suspicious Synonyms

SUSPICIOUS Defined for English Language Learners

suspicious

adjective

Definition of suspicious for English Language Learners

: causing a feeling that something is wrong or that someone is behaving wrongly : causing suspicion
: having or showing a feeling that something is wrong or that someone is behaving wrongly : feeling or showing suspicion