Meaning & use
self-doubting
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Not confident in yourself, because you keep questioning whether your abilities or decisions are good enough.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a self-doubting student; she felt self-doubting.
Patterns
- a self-doubting person
- feel self-doubting
As a self-doubting teenager, he rarely raised his hand in class.
Even successful writers can be self-doubting before a book comes out.
Her self-doubting voice told her that she would fail the interview.
Word forms
| comparative | more self-doubting |
|---|---|
| superlative | most self-doubting |
Common combinations
- self-doubting thoughts
- Self-doubting thoughts kept him awake at night.
- a self-doubting leader
- A self-doubting leader may delay decisions.
- feel self-doubting
- I often feel self-doubting before exams.
- self-doubting voice
- She tried to ignore her self-doubting voice.
Synonyms and how they differ
- insecure
- Insecure describes a wider lack of confidence and can include relationships, while self-doubting focuses on questioning ability.
- unsure
- Unsure is a mild, everyday word that need not refer to personal ability.
- hesitant
- Hesitant describes behavior, like pausing before acting, while self-doubting describes the thoughts behind it.
- diffident
- Diffident is more formal and suggests shyness about putting yourself forward.
Opposites
Word family
- doubt noun
- a feeling of uncertainty
- self-doubt noun
- lack of confidence in yourself
- doubtful adjective
- uncertain or unlikely
- doubtfully adverb
- in an uncertain way
Commonly confused: self-doubting or self-denying?
self-doubting vs self-denying
Self-denying means giving up pleasures or needs, which is unrelated to a lack of confidence.
Practice
Even after winning the award, the ____ designer kept asking whether she really deserved it.
Choose one answer.
A self-doubting person keeps questioning their worth, even after success. Self-assured is the opposite and so does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-doubting”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.