unbelief

American  

[uhn-bi-leef] / ˌʌn bɪˈlif /

noun

1. the state or quality of not believing; incredulity or skepticism, especially in matters of doctrine or religious faith.

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unbelief British  

/ ˌʌnbɪˈliːf /

noun

1. disbelief or rejection of belief

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Etymology

Origin of unbelief

1125–75; Middle English unbelefe; see un- ¹, belief

Explanation

You can use the noun unbelief to talk about a lack of belief in something, like your unbelief, since childhood, in fairies. When someone doesn't believe in something, that person has an unbelief. Most often, the term unbelief is used to talk specifically about religion. An atheist is characterized by her unbelief in a god or higher power beyond things that can be scientifically proven. Another word for unbelief is disbelief.

Example Sentences

Unbelief has been creeping slowly over us all for a hundred and fifty years .

From Time Magazine Archive

Last year Father Nazareno Taddei, a cinema expert, introduced a course on "Faith and Unbelief in the Contemporary Cinema"�and illustrated it with uncut showings of avant-garde films by Antonioni, Bresson, Bunuel, Dreyer, Pasolini and Bergman.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unbelief was at the bottom of it all, and so it is still with the nation in dispersion.

From Studies in Zechariah by Gaebelein, Arno C.

Cloth boards 1 6 Modern Unbelief: its Principles and Characteristics.

From The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it? by Burbidge, Edward

This was their compromise: the broken figure had represented Unbelief, because the other one must have been meant for Faith, whose symbol is the cross.

From The Red Room by Strindberg, August