Skeptic

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noun

a person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.

a person who maintains a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements, or the character of others.

a person who doubts the truth of a religion, especially Christianity, or of important elements of it.


( initial capital letter ) Philosophy .
a.
a member of a philosophical school of ancient Greece, the earliest group of which consisted of Pyrrho and his followers, who maintained that real knowledge of things is impossible.
b.
any later thinker who doubts or questions the possibility of real knowledge of any kind.


Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.


a person inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions.
• a person who doubts the truth of Christianity and other religions; an atheist or agnostic.

Philosophy an ancient or modern philosopher who denies the possibility of knowledge, or even rational belief, in some sphere.

The leading ancient skeptic was Pyrrho, whose followers at the Academy vigorously opposed Stoicism. Modern skeptics have held diverse views: the most extreme have doubted whether any knowledge at all of the external world is possible (see solipsism), while others have questioned the existence of objects beyond our experience of them.

New Oxford American Dictionary


ORIGIN late 16th cent. (in sense 2 of the noun): from French sceptique, or via Latin from Greek skeptikos, from skepsis ‘inquiry, doubt’.