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questionable

[kwes-chuh-nuh-buh l]
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adjective
  1. of doubtful propriety, honesty, morality, respectability, etc.: questionable activities; in questionable taste.
  2. open to question or dispute; doubtful or uncertain: a statement of questionable accuracy.
  3. open to question as to being of the nature or value suggested: a questionable privilege.
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Origin of questionable

First recorded in 1580–90; question + -able
Related formsques·tion·a·ble·ness, ques·tion·a·bil·i·ty, nounques·tion·a·bly, adverb

Synonyms

See more synonyms for questionable on Thesaurus.com
2. debatable, disputable, controvertible, dubitable, dubious.

Antonyms

1. certain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for questionably

Historical Examples

  • His powers and purposes are questionably beneficent, at best.

    Doctor Grimshawe's Secret

    Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • Plumage exactly like that of Kumlien Gull and questionably a new species.

    The Bird Book

    Chester A. Reed

  • But, except to the insatiables of "what happened next," these parts are as questionably important as they are decidedly doubtful.

  • Long, however, ere they reached Ostia, the night had fallen; and their situation began to be more than questionably safe.

    Hypatia

    Charles Kingsley

  • It may be observed that, in a Fragment, he questionably personifies Pelasgus.

British Dictionary definitions for questionably

questionable

adjective
  1. (esp of a person's morality or honesty) admitting of some doubt; dubious
  2. of disputable value or authoritya questionable text
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Derived Formsquestionableness or questionability, nounquestionably, adverb
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

Word Origin and History for questionably

questionable

adj.

1580s, "that may be interrogated;" c.1600, "open to dispute, doubtful," from question (v.) + -able. Deprecatory sense of "dubious in character" is attested from 1806. Related: Questionably.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper