Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
disbelief. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
disbelief, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
disbelief in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
disbelief you have here. The definition of the word
disbelief will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
disbelief, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
dis- + belief.
Pronunciation
Noun
disbelief (usually uncountable, plural disbeliefs)
- Unpreparedness, unwillingness, or inability to believe that something is the case.
She cried out in disbelief on hearing that terrorists had crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York City.
- Astonishment.
I stared in disbelief at the Grand Canyon.
- The loss or abandonment of a belief; cessation of belief.
1885, H. J. Hardwicke, “The God Idea”, in The Agnostic: A Monthly Journal of Liberal Thought, volume 1, page 239:There is an agony of suffering in that lingering doubt which haunts the human soul in the beginnings of disbelief.
1927, Gilbert W. Gabriel, “Male, Female and American Drama”, in Vanity Fair, volume 27, number 4, page 73:No adolescent can achieve disbelief in the stork without an eruption of young oaths and cynicisms.
2002, Laikwan Pang, Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937, →ISBN, page 99:His later left-wing films prevented any pure and strong emotional attachment between the two sexes from gaining narrative momentum, which might reflect his gradual disbelief in romantic love.
2012, Gloria Neufeld Redekop, Bad Girls and Boys Go to Hell (or not): Engaging Fundamentalist Evangelicalism, →ISBN, page 246:Just like the disbelief in Santa Claus happens gradually, I wondered if it was similar for people leaving their faith.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
unpreparedness, unwillingness, or inability to believe that something is the case
References
- disbelief in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “disbelief”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “disbelief”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.