self-doubt

[ self-dout ]
See synonyms for: self-doubtself-doubts on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. lack of confidence in the reliability of one's own motives, personality, thought, etc.

Origin of self-doubt

1
First recorded in 1840–50

Other words from self-doubt

  • self-doubting, adjective

Words Nearby self-doubt

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use self-doubt in a sentence

  • Now indeed I felt a sickness of self-doubt, for the wash of the invisible sea never had come to me until tonight.

    The Thing from the Lake | Eleanor M. Ingram
  • Peter was very tender-hearted, very sympathetic, very prone to self-doubt.

    The Dull Miss Archinard | Anne Douglas Sedgwick
  • If he were naturally observant, he would see this; if he were given at all to self-doubt, he would feel it.

    Robert Orange | John Oliver Hobbes
  • Even Hildas morbid self-doubt could not deny the essential truth of this point of view.

    The Dull Miss Archinard | Anne Douglas Sedgwick
  • Far from antagonizing, Periors judgment had aroused in her an anxious self-doubt, an anxious respect for her candid critic.

    The Confounding of Camelia | Anne Douglas Sedgwick

British Dictionary definitions for self-doubt

self-doubt

noun
  1. the act or state of doubting oneself

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012