skeptic

Or scep·tic

[skep-tik]

noun

1. a person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.

2. a person who maintains a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements, or the character of others.

3. a person who doubts the truth of a religion, especially Christianity, or of important elements of it.

   Synonyms: doubter
   Antonyms: believer

4. (initial capital letter)

   1. a member of a philosophical school of ancient Greece, the earliest group of which consisted of Pyrrho and his followers, who maintained that real knowledge of things is impossible.

   2. any later thinker who doubts or questions the possibility of real knowledge of any kind.

adjective

1. pertaining to skeptics or skepticism; skeptical.

2. (initial capital letter),  pertaining to the Skeptics.

skeptic

/ ˈskɛptɪk /

noun

1. an archaic, and the usual US, spelling of sceptic

Other Word Forms

• skepticism noun
• skepticalness noun
• skeptical adjective
• skeptically adverb
• antiskeptic noun
• nonskeptic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of skeptic¹

1565–75; < Late Latin scepticus thoughtful, inquiring (in plural Scepticī the Skeptics) < Greek skeptikós, equivalent to sképt ( esthai ) to consider, examine (akin to skopeîn to look; -scope ) + -ikos -ic

Synonym Study

See agnostic.

Example Sentences

Kennedy dismissed an entire advisory panel responsible for vaccine recommendations and replaced its members with known vaccine skeptics.

From Los Angeles Times

Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by the vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

From Los Angeles Times

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, essentially for putting her own professional integrity and commitment to public service above crackpot directives from a cabal of vaccine skeptics.

From Los Angeles Times

Kennedy is probably the world’s most famous vaccine skeptic, having spent years wallowing in the rabbit hole of dark conspiracy theories.

From Salon

Or later, as he sought photographic evidence of the Mars canals: “We must secure some canals to confound the skeptics” — which, today, carries eerie echoes of “Find me the votes.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• agnostic 
• cynic 
• dissenter 
• doubter www.thesaurus.com
• pessimist 
• questioner www.thesaurus.com