confident
Americanadjective
-
having strong belief or full assurance; sure.
confident of fulfillment.
-
sure of oneself; having no uncertainty about one's own abilities, correctness, successfulness, etc.; self-confident; bold.
a confident speaker.
- Synonyms:
- intrepid, assured, self-reliant
-
excessively bold; presumptuous.
-
Obsolete. trustful or confiding.
noun
adjective
-
having or showing confidence or certainty; sure
confident of success
-
sure of oneself; bold
-
presumptuous; excessively bold
Usage
What are other ways to say confident?
The adjective confident means “having strong belief or full assurance.” How does confident compare to synonyms certain, sure, and positive? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of confident
First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin confīdent- (stem of confīdēns ), present participle of confīdere. See confide, -ent
Explanation
If you're confident you are sure about something, someone, or yourself. He was confident he could keep his balance and cross the river on the skinny log, but he wasn't so confident that the log was strong enough to hold him. Confident is often a word of assurance. Someone may ask, "Are you sure that's the right way to do it?" and then, just to be assured, they might say, "So, you're confident that's the right wire to cut so the bomb doesn't blow?" Being really sure of something or being sure of yourself is being confident. "He held his head high, but not in an arrogant or show-off way; he was just confident about who he was. He liked himself."
Vocabulary lists containing confident
In the Mood? 100 Words to Describe Emotions
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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Hooked on a Feeling, List 3
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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.
Watching her now back then, young and fresh faced, confident, funny and exquisitely talented, she exhibits the naturalness that would serve her well throughout the years, but one might say, closer to the surface.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
“After a strong start to the year, we are updating our full-year sales and operating margin outlook and remain confident in our long-term growth path and investment priorities,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
One reason to be confident that AI’s market-beating odds won’t improve in any lasting way is a famous article written nearly forty years ago by William Sharpe, the 1990 Nobel laureate in economics.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
Meal prep often asks us to make an absurdly confident prediction about our future appetites.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
Fidel begins to speak, and his voice, so loud, so confident, sends a shiver up my spine.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
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.
