hesitancy
Americannoun
-
hesitancies
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hesitancy
From the Latin word haesitantia, dating back to 1610–20. See hesitant, -ancy
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:
The United States is in the midst of its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, according to official figures released Friday, amid a serious uptick in cases as vaccine hesitancy grows.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Everyone knows there’s a lot more coming, and so I think there’s been a hesitancy to jump in with both feet here,” said Travis King, head of investment-grade corporates at Voya Investment Management.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
On top of that hesitancy about the real effects of returning to the SAT is the fact that not all UC professors agree it is impossible for lacking students to catch up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
The emotional roller coaster his comments and the subsequent backlash took us on are emblematic of a larger hesitancy and resistance to change.
From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2026
“Well,” he said, with a most convincing hesitancy, “well, if you wanted to come, Professor, Hagrid would probably be really pleased.... Give Aragog a better send-off, you know...”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Many medical professionals, like experts at Seattle’s Glow Medispa, are now working even harder to clear up misinformation and to assuage common hesitancies.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
"There’s different kinds of hesitancies, right? So I don’t think that there’s much excuse to not know the information available anymore. Hence that’s why I think it should be mandatory at this stage," he explained.
From Fox News ● Aug. 11, 2021
“We learned firsthand what the hesitancies were for Baltimore City residents,” Dzirasa said.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 7, 2020
To identify the roots of these beliefs and hesitancies, Amin and Omer went deeper than most other research on fear of childhood vaccines.
From Slate ● Feb. 4, 2019
She encouraged Dick to frequent Darrow, in whom she divined a persistency of effort, an artistic self-confidence, in curious contrast to his social hesitancies.
From Sanctuary by Edith Wharton
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.
