Paradoxical vs Doubtful - What's the difference?
paradoxical | doubtful | Related terms |
Having self-contradictory properties.
* 1776 , (Adam Smith), , book II, ch 2
* 1898 , , , Book 2, ch 4
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=4 * 1933 , & Hazel Heald,
Subject to, or causing doubt
or showing doubt, sceptical
Undecided or of uncertain outcome
(obsolete) Fearsome, dreadful.
*, Bk.XIV, Ch.vii:
*:‘With whom,’ seyde Sir Percivale, ‘shall I fyght?’ ‘With the moste douteful champion of the worlde.’
Improbable or unlikely
Suspicious, or of dubious character
Unclear or unreliable
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=E.R. Eddison, title=The Worm Ouroboros
, passage=The pupils of her great eyes were large in the doubtful lamplight, swallowing their green fires in deep pools of mystery and darkness.}}
Paradoxical is a related term of doubtful.
As adjectives the difference between paradoxical and doubtful
is that paradoxical is having self-contradictory properties while doubtful is subject to, or causing doubt.paradoxical
English
Adjective
(-)- It is the ambiguity of language only which can make this proposition appear either doubtful or paradoxical . When properly explained and understood, it is almost self-evident.
- It sounds paradoxical , but I am inclined to think that the weakness and insanity of the curate warned me, braced me, and kept me a sane man.
citation, passage=By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.}}
- It was tightly fitted with a cap of the same substance, and bore engraved figurings of an evidently decorative and possibly symbolic nature - conventional designs which seemed to follow a peculiarly alien, paradoxical , and doubtfully describable system of geometry.