disbelief
/dɪsbɪˈliːf/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.43 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An unpreparedness, unwillingness, or an inability to believe that something is the case.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "She cried out in disbelief on hearing that terrorists had crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York City."
- "'Smuggling was a way of life here, with no stigma attached,' David explained. His own granny used to smuggle out rabbit meat, tied to her body, and bring back such coveted Italian goods as chocolate, coffee and brooms. 'Brooms?' I asked him in disbelief. 'Yes, ordinary sorghum brooms, which were in short supply in Communist Yugoslavia, like many other basic household goods,' he said with a smile."
- "I stared in disbelief at the Grand Canyon."
- "On the streets leading down to the main road to Tiananmen Square, furious people stared in disbelief at the glow in the sky, listening to the sound of shots."
- "There is an agony of suffering in that lingering doubt which haunts the human soul in the beginnings of disbelief."
- "No adolescent can achieve disbelief in the stork without an eruption of young oaths and cynicisms."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des-bor. ▲ Latin dis-bor. Middle English dis- English dis- Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-West Germanic *laubu Old English lēafa Middle English bileve English belief English disbelief From dis- + belief.
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /dɪsbɪˈliːf/