Synonyms for skeptic
- noun
- American English
Most common
Definitions
- n. 1
Someone who doubts beliefs, claims, plans, etc. that are accepted by others as true or appropriate, especially one who habitually does so.
Even skeptics of the policy acknowledge that the Army conducted an exemplary insourcing program that successfully counteracted the Comptroller's budget ...
Related words
- Word family
- skeptical skepticism
- Other spellings
- sceptic UK
Forms
- Plural
- skeptics → doubters, atheists, agnostics, unbelievers…
Choose the right word
The skeptic doubts divine revelation; the disbeliever and the unbeliever reject it, the disbeliever with more of intellectual dissent, the unbeliever (in the common acceptation) with indifference or with opposition of heart as well as of intellect.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- atheist Mary is Catholic, but her boyfriend is an atheist.
- agnostic Tom told me that he thought that Mary was agnostic.
- unbeliever Are you a total unbeliever or do you believe in Chance?
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| skeptic | rising | |
| atheist | rising | |
| agnostic | rising | |
| unbeliever | rising | |
| doubter | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- deist2
- 7 letters
- atheist3, infidel3, doubter2
- 8 letters
- agnostic3
- 10 letters
- unbeliever
- 11 letters
- nullifidian
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (deist2 = 2 syllables).