disbelief

English

Etymology

dis- +‎ belief.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsbɪˈliːf/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

disbelief (usually uncountable, plural disbeliefs)

1. 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.

2. Astonishment.

   I stared in disbelief at the Grand Canyon.

3. 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.

   • Laikwan Pang (2002) 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.”
   • Gloria Neufeld Redekop (2012) 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

• incredulity

Antonyms

• belief

Derived terms

• suspend one's disbelief
• suspension of disbelief
• willing suspension of disbelief

 

Related terms

• misbelief
• unbelief
• disbelieve

Translations

unpreparedness, unwillingness, or inability to believe that something is the case

• Bulgarian: недоверие (bg) n (nedoverie), скептицизъм (bg) m (skepticizǎm)
• Czech: nevíra f, ustrnutí n
• Dutch: ongeloof (nl) n
• Esperanto: nekredemo, nekredo
• Finnish: epäusko (fi)
• German: Unglaube (de) m
• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 f (ungalaubeins)
• Greek: δυσπιστία (el) f (dyspistía), σκεπτικισμός (el) m (skeptikismós)
• Latin: incredulitas f
• Portuguese: descrença (pt) f, incredulidade f
• Romanian: necredință (ro) f, neîncredere (ro) f

astonishment

• Bulgarian: учудване (bg) n (učudvane)
• Czech: úžas (cs) m, ustrnutí n
• Esperanto: miro
• Finnish: ällistys (fi), epäusko (fi)
• Greek: κατάπληξη (el) f (katáplixi)
• Portuguese: surpresa (pt) f
• Romanian: uimire (ro) f, surprindere (ro) f

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.