1
as in shred
a very small amount
went about her business without even a scruple of suspicion
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in speck
a very small piece
left just a scruple of asparagus on the plate
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in doubt
an uneasy feeling about the rightness of what one is doing or going to do
the survey showed that many students had few scruples about cheating on papers or exams
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to hesitate
to show uncertainty about the right course of action
a tabloid journalist who has never scrupled to reveal the most intimate details about the lives of celebrities
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of scruple
Literary Hub, 14 May 2026
And like any good femme fatale, Maddy is given savvy at the expense of moral scruple.
—The Editors, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
But we’re invited to see him as, despite these foibles, amusing and retaining, and his cynicism about everything and his lack of moral scruple is—actually, we’re invited to see this as a kind of higher wisdom.
—David Frum, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
But the squirrelly, middle-aged guy at the weird surplus store in northern Florida had no such scruples.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2026
Sometimes, a billionaire has very questionable scruples as to the best ways to go about things.
—Jevon Phillips, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2026
These firms now pay their rainmakers like Wall Street stars and have dropped their courtly scruples for relentless commercialism.
—Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 5 Feb. 2026
Mainstream Republicans and right-leaning unaffiliated voters will gravitate to candidates with experience and scruples.
—Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 31 Dec. 2025
For Jay Gatsby, a man of immense wealth and few scruples, almost nothing is beyond his voracious appetite for excess.
—David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer, 30 Oct. 2025
Noun
Colonial authorities regularly questioned their character, scruples, and business practices; Grietje and Anthony returned the favor.
—Literary Hub, 14 May 2026
And like any good femme fatale, Maddy is given savvy at the expense of moral scruple.
—The Editors, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
But we’re invited to see him as, despite these foibles, amusing and retaining, and his cynicism about everything and his lack of moral scruple is—actually, we’re invited to see this as a kind of higher wisdom.
—David Frum, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
But the squirrelly, middle-aged guy at the weird surplus store in northern Florida had no such scruples.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2026
Sometimes, a billionaire has very questionable scruples as to the best ways to go about things.
—Jevon Phillips, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2026
These firms now pay their rainmakers like Wall Street stars and have dropped their courtly scruples for relentless commercialism.
—Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 5 Feb. 2026
Mainstream Republicans and right-leaning unaffiliated voters will gravitate to candidates with experience and scruples.
—Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 31 Dec. 2025
For Jay Gatsby, a man of immense wealth and few scruples, almost nothing is beyond his voracious appetite for excess.
—David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer, 30 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scruple
Noun
-
Angie is made more complex inside a later version, who is bruised and angry, ready to rip any and everyone to shreds.—
David John Chávez,
Mercury News,
29 May 2026
-
The camera locks Henri in its sights, catching his every empty boast and complicit deed as Hitler’s Final Solution looms, and offering nary a shred of redemption or reassurance.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
27 May 2026
Noun
-
Most astronomers now agree that each of these minuscule crimson specks—which bear a striking resemblance to enormous, faraway stars—actually has a burgeoning black hole at its center.—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
27 May 2026
-
There are blue spots, specks, scratches, flares, and bits of crud in almost ALL of the Apollo photos.—
Mike Wall,
Space.com,
18 May 2026
Noun
-
But there is no doubt that the NAACP is right about the contradiction of people cheering the exploits of Black athletes at college programs while also cheering the diminishing of Black political representation.—
Michael Cunningham,
AJC.com,
4 June 2026
-
While Toregem wants to bring its treatment to market by 2030, experts have some lingering doubts whether the approach can actually work in humans.—
Victor Tangermann,
Futurism,
4 June 2026
Verb
-
But at the last second, Pages pulled up to let Tucker make the catch, and Tucker hesitated before flailing after it.—
Maddie Lee,
Los Angeles Times,
30 May 2026
-
While their rivals started spending significant sums of money as soon as the 2024-25 season finished, Spurs wasted a couple of weeks hesitating about the long-term future of then head coach Ange Postecoglou before replacing him with Thomas Frank.—
David Ornstein,
New York Times,
29 May 2026
Noun
-
The gold bar could be found after any clue, organizers said, with additional hints being released throughout the summer, gradually making the location of the gold easier to identify.—
Mustafa Qadri,
CNN Money,
2 June 2026
-
There was just a hint of fog, which would thicken a little toward dawn.—
Wyatt Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
The team then used ultrasonication, a technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to agitate and process materials, and broke the bulk liquid metal into fine particles.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
3 June 2026
-
So by necessity, the encoding must be approximate, and therefore some aspects of what’s going on in the space-time can’t be perfectly recovered by measuring a subset of the quantum particles in the usual way.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
3 June 2026
Noun
-
Johnson clearly felt no such compunctions.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
4 June 2026
-
Often transnational agreements are necessary if pipelines pass through several territories and security — something in short supply when Iran has shown no compunction in attacking neighbors’ energy facilities.—
Holly Ellyatt,
CNBC,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
After faltering in last year’s Div.—
Brendan Connelly,
Boston Herald,
30 May 2026
-
The Broncos faltered in the snow, the Nuggets floundered on the hardwood, and now the Avalanche fail on ice.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
29 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scruple.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scruple. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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