disbelieve
Americanverb (used with object)
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disbelieves,
present (3rd person singular)
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disbelieved,
past participle, past
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disbelieving
present participle
verb (used without object)
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disbelieves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disbelieved,
past participle, past
-
disbelieving
present participle
verb
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(tr) to reject as false or lying; refuse to accept as true or truthful
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to have no faith (in)
disbelieve in God
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disbelievesimple
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disbelievessimple
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have disbelievedperfect
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has disbelievedperfect
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am disbelievingprogressive
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are disbelievingprogressive
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is disbelievingprogressive
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have been disbelievingperfect progressive
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has been disbelievingperfect progressive
Past
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disbelievedsimple
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had disbelievedperfect
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was disbelievingprogressive
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were disbelievingprogressive
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had been disbelievingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disbelieve
Explanation
When you disbelieve someone, you're unable to trust what they're saying. A detective is likely to disbelieve a suspect who's sweating nervously and not making eye contact. Believing something or someone means you've got confidence or faith. Add the prefix dis- to believe, and it's the exact opposite. If your cousin is famous for his tall tales, you'll probably disbelieve his story about meeting the Queen in England last summer. And if a jury disbelieves someone's testimony, they're likely to discount it when they start deliberating.
Vocabulary lists containing disbelieve
Selection Vocabulary 2, Unit 2
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The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"That you can drop a person in the sea with a life jacket in a war zone was something people automatically chose to disbelieve," Mr Gonsalves said.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2025
Few of the now grown-up McMartin children have spoken publicly, but some have described the pressure to fabricate stories or disbelieve innocent memories in favor of traumatic ones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2024
Many people do disbelieve the very first approach by a scammer or a con artist.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2023
Mr. Johnston said, “You cannot disbelieve the resurrection based on the historical accounts that we have. It is so well attested.”
From Washington Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
“All I ask, all I ask, is some small minimum of trust, just a little bit of sympathy for all I am trying to do, and instead you disbelieve, you scoff, you mock and jeer.”
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
Anyone who claims not to understand the concept of the poverty-to-prison pipeline or disbelieves the word of the wrongfully convicted cannot watch this show and still legitimately hold on to that illusion.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2022
"Categorising the claims that have been made as 'distorted, and in many cases false' creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims," it reads.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2021
Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims.
From The Verge ● Jul. 26, 2021
It is a shame that Mr Davenport–Hines dismisses stories he disbelieves, about other moles, sexual foibles and bureaucratic mishaps, as “delusions”, “nasty inventions” and “silly fancies”.
From Economist ● Feb. 8, 2018
Any thing unlike his own narrow experience he disbelieves, if it flatters no propensity; any nursery tale is swallowed implicitly by him if it does.
From A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive by John Stuart Mill
In these incidents and others, the women against whom C.K. committed his offenses were either disbelieved or encouraged to keep their stories to themselves.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2024
One friend said Grace felt disbelieved throughout the court proceedings and "her soul just completely disappeared".
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2023
The women were determined to speak up together, rather than be silenced and disbelieved, said another plaintiff, Cherryl Jackson-Williams.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2023
Yet, 16 of the 17 people who reported brain fog in our study described feeling disbelieved.
From Scientific American ● May 12, 2023
Gandalf, however, disbelieved Bilbo’s first story, as soon as he heard it, and he continued to be very curious about the ring.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
The other disbelieving intellectuals continued to write and publish but seemed to make less news by their pronouncements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
Sheen’s remarkable performance dominates this compelling three-part Amazon film, A Very Royal Scandal, as he captures a prince angry and disbelieving at his collapsing status.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2024
As he danced across home plate into the arms of bouncing, disbelieving Dodgers Friday night, the magnitude of his accomplishment was evident in the condition of his uniform.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2024
They look disbelieving but I walk with them to Plankinton and show them an address on a seemingly abandoned building and explain the numbering system again.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2024
“No one could be alive that far up,” he cried, disbelieving that anyone could’ve come from that close to the mountain.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
