disbelief

---

Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /dɪsbɪˈliːf/

Noun

disbelief (uncountable)

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.
   • 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

Related terms

• misbelief
• unbelief
• disbelieve

Translations

• German: Unglaube
• Portuguese: descrença, incredulidade

Translations

• Portuguese: surpresa

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003