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doubtful

doubt·ful/ˈdaʊtfəl/adjective, noun

doubtful is spelled D-O-U-B-T-F-U-L: 8 letters and 2 syllables (doubt·ful). It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, doubtful means “Subject to, or causing doubt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in doubtful?

Letters8: D-O-U-B-T-F-U-L
Syllables2: doubt·ful
In writing3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is doubtful?

Doubtful appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce doubtful?

  • /ˈdaʊtfəl/

Doubtful has 2 syllables, split doubt·ful in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-doubtful.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of doubtful

  • more doubtful comparative
  • most doubtful superlative
  • doubtfull
  • doubtfuls plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does doubtful mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Subject to, or causing doubt.

  2. 2

    Experiencing or showing doubt, skeptical.

  3. 3

    Undecided or of uncertain outcome.

  4. 4

    obsoleteFearsome, dreadful.

  5. 5

    Improbable or unlikely.

  6. 6

    Suspicious, or of dubious character.

  7. 7

    Unclear or unreliable.

noun

  1. 1

    A doubtful person or thing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Doubtful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdouteux, douteuse (subject to, or causing doubt)
Germanzweifelhaft (subject to, or causing doubt), zweifelnd (experiencing or showing doubt)
Portugueseduvidoso, dúbio (subject to, or causing doubt), incerto (experiencing or showing doubt)
Spanishdudoso (subject to, or causing doubt)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does doubtful come from?

From Middle English doutfull, douteful, equivalent to doubt + -ful.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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