Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Distrust |
DistrustNoun1. Doubt about someone's honesty. 2. The trait of not trusting others. Verb1. Regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in. 2. Suspect to be false; "I distrust that man". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "distrust" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Synonyms: DistrustSynonyms: distrustfulness (n), misgiving (n), suspicion (n), doubt (v), mistrust (v), suspect (v). (additional references) |
| Antonym: trust (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Fear | Verb: fear, stand in awe of; be afraid; Adjective: have qualms; Noun: apprehend, sit upon thorns, eye askance; distrust; (disbelieve). |
Hope | Unsuspecting, unsuspicious; fearless, free from fear, free from suspicion, free from distrust, free from despair, exempt from fear, exempt from suspicion, exempt from distrust, exempt from despair; |
Incredulity | Verb: be incredulous; Adjective: distrust; (disbelieve); refuse to believe; shut one's eyes to, shut one's ears to; turn a deaf ear to; hold aloof, ignore, nullis jurare in verba magistri. |
Unbelief Doubt | Doubt; be doubtful; (uncertain); doubt the truth of; be skeptical as to; Adjective: diffide; distrust, mistrust; suspect, smoke, scent, smell a rat; have doubts, harbor doubts, entertain doubts, suspicions; have one's doubts. |
Doubt; (uncertainty); skepticism, scepticism, misgiving, demure; distrust, mistrust, cynicism; misdoubt, suspicion, jealousy, scruple, qualm; onus probandi. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Distrust |
| English words defined with "distrust": agreed ♦ cynicism ♦ diffuse, Distrusted, distrustful, distrustfully, Distrusting, Distrustless, doubt ♦ imbue, in agreement ♦ Misfaith, misogynic, mistrustfully, Mistrustingly, Misween ♦ Novel assignment ♦ Out of doubt ♦ permeate, pervade ♦ suspect ♦ Unfaith, Untrust ♦ Wantrust. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "distrust": Bench ♦ pixel sort ♦ War. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "distrust": Misween ♦ Unfaith, Untrust. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | There's no distrust, no envy, no betrayal. (Star Trek: Voyager; writing credit: Douglas Day Stewart) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Why does everybody distrust me so?. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Arthur Schopenhauer | The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust. |
Dante Alighieri | Here must all distrust be left behind; all cowardice must be ended. |
Friedrich Nietzsche | Distrust all men in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. |
| Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! | |
H. L. Mencken | On one issue, at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women. |
Hare | Artifice is weak; it is the work of mere man, in the imbecility and self distrust of his mimic understanding. |
Henry David Thoreau | Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. |
William Ewart Gladstone | Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence; Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1963 | The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1938) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | However, when one has Beresina, Leipsic, and Fontainebleau behind him, it seems as if he might distrust Waterloo. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Sources at American firms indicate that there is little potential for development, but some local sources contend that the UAE, and Dubai especially, will continue to grow. These sources contend that locals will continue to invest in real estate because 6-10% returns are adequate, and there are few other options for local investors, many of whom continue to distrust more speculative investments. (references) | |
Economic History | Russia | There is a lingering distrust of banks by potential small depositors, and an apparent lack of both interest and expertise in the banking community for the provision of small loans. (references) |
Tajikistan | While the government and the now incorporated former opposition continue to distrust each other, they have often found a way to work with each other and are committed to peacefully resolving their differences. (references) | |
South Korea | The breakdown reflected basic differences in approach, with Pyongyang insisting on immediate steps toward reunification before discussing specific issues and Seoul maintaining that, given the long history of mutual distrust, reunification must come through a gradual step-by-step process. (references) | |
Human Rights | Mexico | Many citizens distrust the justice system, including law enforcement officials, and are reluctant to register official complaints. (references) |
Indonesia | In addition security forces and intelligence agencies tended to view foreign NGO's and international organizations with suspicion and distrust, particularly those operating in conflict areas. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Canada | Quebec's Indian people remain overwhelmingly opposed to separation from Canada and deeply distrust the separatist government of the province. (references) |
Worker Rights | Chile | Employers say that this is due to the workers' preference, distrust of union leaders, and loyalty to companies. (references) |
Albania | Victims often do not identify themselves as trafficked persons and are unwilling to testify due to fear of retribution from traffickers and because of distrust of the police. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity. The student of history who has not been taught to expect the unexpected may justly boast himself inaccessible to the light. "In time of peace prepare for war" has a deeper meaning than is commonly discerned; it means, not merely that all things earthly have an end -- that change is the one immutable and eternal law -- but that the soil of peace is thickly sown with the seeds of war and singularly suited to their germination and growth. It was when Kubla Khan had decreed his "stately pleasure dome" -- when, that is to say, there were peace and fat feasting in Xanadu -- that he heard from afar Ancestral voices prophesying war. One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of "hands across the sea," and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity provide the night. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | There are people that simply distrust anything that is in a commercial of any kind. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
James Madison | 1809-1817 | In providing the means necessary the National Legislature will not distrust the heroic and enlightened patriotism of its constituents. |
Herbert C. Hoover | 1929-1933 | Fortunately the New World is largely free from the inheritances of fear and distrust which have so troubled the Old World. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Distrust" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 81.85% of the time. "Distrust" is used about 292 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 81.85% | 239 | 19,365 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 12.33% | 36 | 57,479 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5.82% | 17 | 85,106 |
| Total | 100.00% | 292 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "distrust": exempt from distrust ♦ free from distrust ♦ have a distrust of smb.. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "distrust": self-distrust. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
distrust | 15 |
between distrust sex | 3 |
distrust poem | 2 |
distrust quote | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "distrust"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | dyshoj (call in question, dilly dally, disbelieve, doubt, misdoubt, question, smell a rat, suspect), dyshim (doubt, dubiety, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, misgiving, qualm, query, suspicion, suspiciousness), nuk i zë besë (disbelieve, discredit), nuk i besoj, mosbesim (disbelief, discredit, doubt, incredulity, misfaith, misgiving, mistrust, suspicion, unbelief). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | لا يثق, لا ثقة, عدم ثقة (disbelief, mistrust, suspicion), إرتياب (mistrust, suspicion, suspiciousness, trepidation), إرتاب (doubt, mistrust, suspect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | недоверие (mistrust, suspiciousness), подозрение (mistrust, sus, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 不信" . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | nedùvìra (mistrust, suspicion, unbelief), nedùvìřovat (doubt, mistrust, suspect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | mistro (suspect, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | wantrouwen (suspect, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | سوء ظن (Suspicion), اعتمادنداشتن , بی اعتمادی , بدگمانی (Misgiving, Mistrust, Suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | epäluuloisuus (suspiciousness), epäluulo (suspicion), epäluottamus (lack of confidence), epäillä (be suspicious of, doubt, hesitate, suspect), epäileväisyys (suspiciousness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | se méfier. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | misstrauen (be suspicious, be wary, doubt, mistrust, suspiciousness, to suspect, wariness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | δυσπιστία (disbelief, incredulity, incredulousness, mistrust, mistrustfulness, skepticalness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לחשו" באי אמון, לחשו" (scent, suspect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | bizalmatlanság (discredit, mistrust, shyness), gyanakvás (misgiving, mistrust, suspiciousness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Icelandic | vantreysta (suspect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | syak (doubt, suspicion), rasa tak percaya, mencurigai (suspect), kecurigaan (mistrust, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | diffidenza (mistrust, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 邪推 (unjust suspicion), 不審 (doubt, incomplete understanding, infidelity, question, strangeness, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ぎわく (doubt, misgivings, suspicion), ぎ (affair, be suspicious of, case, ceremony, connection, deception, deed, doubt, false, falsehood, favor, friendly relations, friendship, goodwill, honour, imitation, intimacy, justice, kindness, lie, matter, morality, relation, righteousness, rule, skill), うたがい (doubt, question, skepticism, suspicion, uncertainty), うたぐり (doubt, question, skepticism, suspicion, uncertainty), ふし"よう (discredit), ふし" (building, center of buoyancy, construction, depression, discredit, disloyalty, doing everything one can, doubt, dullness, incomplete understanding, infidelity, insincerity, mistrust, perfidy, question, racking one's brains, slump, stagnation, strangeness, suspicion, taking pains to, unfaithfulness), わるぎ (evil intent, ill feeling, ill-will, malice), わるずいりょう (unjust suspicion), じゃすい (unjust suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 불 감. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | ourys (agnosticism, doubt, doubtfulness, misgiving, scepticism, suspicion, suspiciousness), meehreisteil (mistrust). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | mistro (disbelieve, suspect, suspicion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | deskonfiá (suspect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | istrustday desconfiar (mistrust, question), desconfiança (diffidence, jaundice, misgiving, mistrust, mistrustfulness, surmise, suspicion), suspeitar (suspect), suspeita (doubt, inkling, mistrust, suspicion, umbrage), receio (apprehension, apprehensiveness, awe, dismay, fear, misgiving, mistrust, trepidation), recear (apprehend, be afraid of, boggle, doubt, dread, fear). (various references) se îndoi (be doubtful of, bend, cast doubts on smth., crook, discredit, double up, doubt, get out of true, give, hook on, pucker, query, question, sag, spring, stand in doubt, suspect, verge, yield), nu avea încredere în (discount, fight shy of smth., mistrust), neîncredere (disbelief, discredit, doubt, mistrust), neînchipuit (mistrust, suspicion), bãnuialã (anticipation, apprehension, conjecture, discredit, doubt, foresight, hunch, idea, inkling, jealousy, mistrust, presumption, supposition, surmise, suspicion), bãnui (anticipate, conjecture, doubt, feel, foreknow, foresee, guess, imagine, mistrust, presume, smoke, sniff, suppose, surmise, suspect, think). (various references) сомнение (challenge, disbelief, discredit, doubt, dubiety, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, impeachment, impereachment, qualm, scruple), недоверие (discredit, misfaith, mistrust, unbelief). (various references) sumnjati (doubt, mistrust, suspect), nepoverenje (mistrust), nemati poverenje. (various references) desconfianza (district, mistrust, mistrustfulness). (various references) misstro (disbelief, discredit, mistrust, suspect, suspicion, unbelief). (various references) kuşku (disbelief, doubt, fears, impeachment, misgiving, quandary, query, question, surmise, suspicion, uneasiness), inanmamak (disbelieve, misbelieve, not to believe), güvensizlik (disbelief, discredit, doubt, insecurity, mistrust, no confidence, shyness), güvenmemek (disbelieve, discredit, doubt, have a distrust of smb., mistrust, not to rely on, not to trust, suspect), şüphe duymak. (various references) сумніватися (demur, dispute, doubt, empeach, hesitate, impeach, question, scruple), недовір'я (discredit, incredulity, mistrust), підозра (misdoubt, mistrust, suspicion). (various references) sự nghi ngờ (doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubiousness, dubitation, mistrustfulness, suspicion), sự ngờ vực (doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubiousness, dubitation, incredulity, incredulousness), sự không tin cậy, sự không tin (disbelief, miss, mistrustfulness, unbelief). (various references) anymddiried (mistrust), anhyder (diffidence, shyness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | diffidentes, diffidentia, diffido. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "distrust": distrusted, distrustful, distrustfully, distrustfulness, distrustfulnesses, distrusting, distrusts. (additional references) | |
| |
"Distrust" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: distrupt, distust, Tritrust. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "distrust" (pronounced di'stru"st) |
| 7 | -i' s t r u" s t | mistrust. |
| 5 | -t r u" s t | antitrust, entrust, trust. |
| 4 | -r u" s t | crust, encrust, incrust, rust, thrust. |
| 3 | -u" s t | adjust, bused, bussed, bust, Combust, cussed, discussed, disgust, dust, fussed, gust, just, lust, must, nonplussed, readjust, robust, unjust. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-i-r-s-s-t-t-u" | |
-2 letters: struts, sturts, trusts, tsuris. | |
-3 letters: dirts, duits, durst, dusts, risus, rusts, situs, stirs, strut, studs, sturt, suits, surds, truss, trust, turds. | |
-4 letters: dirt, diss, dits, duit, dust, rids, rust, ruts, sirs, sits, sris, stir, stud, suds, suit, surd, tits, tuis, turd, tuts, urds. | |
-5 letters: dis, dit, dui, ids, its, rid, rut, sir, sis, sit. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-i-r-s-s-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: distrusts, sturdiest. | |
+2 letters: denturists, distrusted, mistrusted, outstrides. | |
+3 letters: distributes, distrustful, distrusting, stridulates, subdistrict. | |
+4 letters: adventurists, destructions, distributees, distributors, divestitures, resuscitated, subdistricts. | |
+5 letters: distributions, distrustfully, industrialist, redistributes, reductionists, stridulations, subdistricted, transductions, transudations. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 69 73 74 72 75 73 74 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. .. ... - .-. ..- ... - |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01110100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D i s t r u s t |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0069 0073 0074 0072 0075 0073 0074 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3875858684878586 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Orthography 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
