disbelieve
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disbelieves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
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:
He said he believed the boy was genuinely concerned about the knife, and agreed he had "no reason to disbelieve him".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 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
It's not that they disbelieve Ford, so much as they don't think she had a right to say anything about it.
From Salon ● May 9, 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
I myself did not know how I could have produced so beautiful a child, and I was proud of her and glad, even when people pretended to disbelieve that I could be her mother.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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
Whether one believes or disbelieves the allegations, the individuals’ reactions were opposite.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2020
If he simply disbelieves, or dissents, he is assenting to the contradictory of the thesis, viz. that there is no Revelation.
From An Essay In Aid Of A Grammar Of Assent by John Henry Newman
"We want to avoid situations where victims feel like they're maybe not being taken seriously, or heaven forbid, being disbelieved," says Cdr Southworth.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2025
Hanna has sometimes worried that if she put it all out there, she would be disbelieved.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
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
If they had disbelieved the very first word of it, or the very first sentence of it, it wouldn't have gone anywhere.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2023
The bishop disbelieved it, for such stories always attend the fall of a kingdom.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
He wanted his “famous sister” to say hi to his disbelieving client.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
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
There is a famous clip to be found on Youtube of a television reporter roaming the streets of Liverpool informing disbelieving fans that Bill Shankly had announced his retirement.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2024
Torak threw her a disbelieving look and started stamping out the fire.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
