scintilla of doubt
1
7.9
- noun
- Formal
:
una pizca de duda
- Even after all the evidence was presented, there was still a scintilla of doubt in her mind about his innocence.
- scintilla of doubt in mind
Examples
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And in return, the government says, "We appreciate your confidence, but just in case you have a scintilla of doubt or hesitation, we're going to sell weapons to heinous murderers south.
Blog text (12) -
The lawyer argued that the jury must find him guilty beyond a scintilla of doubt to secure a conviction.
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Despite the overwhelming proof, a scintilla of doubt lingered in the community regarding the outcome of the trial.
Synonyms
2
3.8
A small feeling that something might not be true
1
4.9
A very small feeling of being unsure about something
Antonyms
How Much Doubt
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'scintilla' denotes a minute quantity and 'of doubt' straightforwardly yields 'a very small amount of uncertainty.' Even though 'scintilla' is a rare lexical item, if a learner knows the constituent meanings the overall sense is directly derivable and parallels cross‑linguistic patterns like 'a trace/grain of doubt'.
Etymology
Scintilla of doubt comes from an old word scintilla that meant a tiny spark. Imagine a tiny spark you can hardly see, and that image helps you remember it means 'a very small amount of uncertainty'.