Uncertain vs Doubtful - What's the difference?
uncertain | doubtful |
Not certain; unsure.
*(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
*:Man, without the protection of a superior Being,is uncertain of everything that he hopes for.
Not known for certain; questionable.
:
Not yet determined; undecided.
Variable and subject to change.
Fitful or unsteady.
*
*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
Unpredictable or capricious.
*Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
*:O woman! in our hours of ease, / Uncertain , coy, and hard to please!
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.}}
