What's the difference between doubtful and sceptical?

Doubtful


Definition:

  • (a.) Not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating in belief; also used, metaphorically, of the body when its action is affected by such a state of mind; as, we are doubtful of a fact, or of the propriety of a measure.
  • (a.) Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like.
  • (a.) Characterized by ambiguity; dubious; as, a doubtful expression; a doubtful phrase.
  • (a.) Of uncertain issue or event.
  • (a.) Fearful; apprehensive; suspicious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a further study 1082 patients with a negative or doubtful result of the physical examination were investigated using ultrasound.
  • (2) p-Chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) also reduced the response to levodopa but the usefulness of PCPA as an inhibitor of 5HT synthesis in these experiments in doubtful since it also inhibited the hypoglycaemic effects of 5HTP and i.c.v.
  • (3) There is no doubt that new techniques in molecular biology will continue to evolve so that the goal of gene therapy for many disorders may be possible in the future.
  • (4) I never had any doubt that the vast majority of people engaged in "business" are not the exploiters but the exploited.
  • (5) There is no doubt that psychological, reactive and environmental factors do play a certain role too.
  • (6) Paul Doyle Kick-off Sunday midday Venue St Mary’s Stadium Last season Southampton 2 Leicester City 2 Live Sky Sports 1 Referee Michael Oliver This season G 18, Y 60, R 1, 3.44 cards per game Odds H 5-6 A 4-1 D 5-2 Southampton Subs from Taylor, Martina, Stephens, Davis, Rodriguez, Sims, Ward-Prowse Doubtful Bertrand, Davis, Van Dijk (all match fitness) Injured Boufal (knee, Jan), Hesketh (ankle, Feb), Targett (hamstring, Feb), Austin (shoulder, Mar), Pied (knee, Jun), Gardos (knee, unknown) Suspended None Form DWLLLL Discipline Y37 R2 Leading scorer Austin 6 Leicester City Subs from Zieler, Hamer, Wasilewski, Gray, Fuchs, James, Okazaki, Hernández, Kapustka, King Doubtful None Injured None Suspended None Unavailable Amartey, Mahrez, Slimani (Africa Cup of Nations) Form LDLWDL Discipline Y44 R1 Leading scorers Slimani, Vardy 5
  • (7) Without that, and without undertaking big changes, the service's future may fall into doubt, he says.
  • (8) This is welcome news but it needs to be borne in mind that the manufacturing sector is still far from racing ahead and serious doubts remain about the strength of demand for manufactured goods over the medium term, particularly once stimulative measures start being withdrawn.
  • (9) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (10) The mean age of gravidae with doubtful smears is about 6 years beyond the mean age of gravidae with positive smears.
  • (11) I have no doubt that both the Conservative and Labour parties will maintain throughout the course of the election campaign their determination to build four submarines and 160 warheads,” he says.
  • (12) There is little doubt that when it opens next Thursday, One New Change will be jam-packed with City workers and tourists.
  • (13) We feel that they, as presented, leave serious doubt as to the validity of their conclusions.
  • (14) Contact guidance has been suggested to direct NC cells ventrally in the trunk, but this has been subject to doubt (see Newgreen and Erickson, 1986, Int.
  • (15) Although “there are serious questions and doubts in our minds over the government’s seven-day working agenda … it isn’t clear what this strike action is for and what the position of the BMA is now,” he told the Guardian.
  • (16) There is no doubt that people were killed quite deliberately by police officers.
  • (17) Other critics, even if they were unsure of the lasting relevance, were willing to give Tillmans the benefit of the doubt.
  • (18) We interpret this exaggerated positive attitude as an attempt to overcome inner fears, doubts and ambivalences.
  • (19) Another forward, Manchester United's Danny Welbeck, is a major doubt for the game with a knee complaint.
  • (20) Coghlin said: “There is no doubt that, as a consequence of the personalities involved, these proceedings attracted a very considerable degree of media publicity both before and, to a certain degree, subsequent to the trial.

Sceptical


Definition:

  • () Alt. of Scepticism

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Occasional vomits occur postoperatively in over half of patients but we are sceptical of the value of graded postoperative feeding regimens.
  • (2) It ended with a withering putdown: “I’m leaving Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before ,” Juncker told his host.
  • (3) David Rothkopf, writing in Foreign Policy, is similarly sceptical. "
  • (4) A government-commissioned review into the RET, headed by the businessman and climate change sceptic Dick Warburton, concluded that while it has largely achieved its aims and helped create jobs in clean energy, it should be either wound back or cut off entirely.
  • (5) But she has repeatedly said she doesn't want the job and her hardline attitude to human rights abuses in her current job as secretary of state is said to have made the Chinese sceptical about her candidacy.
  • (6) My scepticism has not vanished overnight and I cannot help but still be haunted by certain fears.
  • (7) We had a brief conversation and I said to him he was acting from high honour here, and I said how sorry I was this wasn’t happening in three or four years time..because Barry is a man of honour..and I think he is a very capable premier and I think he has been missed.” Asked whether he had ever met Nick di Girolamo , the prime minister said both he and Mr di Girolamo attended a lot of functions, and “I don’t for a moment say I have never met him but I don’t recall it.” But former federal Liberal MP Ross Cameron sounded much more sceptical about O’Farrell’s memory lapse when speaking to Sky News.
  • (8) And despite the initial scepticism, now completely gone says Henry, DCA's transparency and accountability systems and mechanisms are now "some of the most convincing tools to fundraising, credibility and brand recognition" and is used by face-to-face fundraisers, volunteers and PR to promote the organisation.
  • (9) Kerry warned a sceptical and sometimes raucous panel that failing to strike Syria would embolden al-Qaida and raise to 100% the chances that Assad would use chemical weapons again.
  • (10) Anette Oien, too, was "deeply sceptical" to start with.
  • (11) Few of us will have reliable memories from before three or four years of age, and recollections from before that time need to be treated with scepticism.
  • (12) His initial exposure to leftist ideas was via the underground hippy press which provided him "with a certain amount of scepticism".
  • (13) He thinks Obama himself is sceptical of the current surge; in fact he thinks many of the politicians who back it are only really doing so because they want a fast exit from Afghanistan.
  • (14) Sceptics said the US protections for journalists would make such a prosecution difficult and also cited pragmatic issues, such as the difficulty of extraditing Assange, an Australian.
  • (15) Sceptics have queried whether such vast sums are realistic for an unstable nation that is battling terror groups and has struggled to attract significant foreign investment.
  • (16) But Clive Cowdery, who founded the company as Resolution Group in 2009, is understood to have been sceptical about such a go-it-alone strategy and preferred a sale on the right terms.
  • (17) Record numbers of shoppers hit the stores this weekend for the Thanksgiving Day sales but retail experts are sceptical that the trend can continue into a bumper Monday for online retailers.
  • (18) The middle term attracts the most scepticism, based on the presumption that just because your field isn't professionally accredited, you do not know anything and you can't process information.
  • (19) Smith, a climate change sceptic who has also subpoenaed government scientists’ communications, has accused the attorney generals of a political witch-hunt and for causing a “chilling impact on scientific research and development”.
  • (20) Glitzy online lectures, or fancy learning technologies, are difficult to reconcile with this fundamental scepticism.