scruple

C2+ Topic:Ethics & Social Judgment

US /ˈskrupəl/ UK /ˈskruːpəl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a moral hesitation or qualm about an action's rightness

He had no scruple about lying to win the argument.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a moral hesitation or qualm... qualm misgiving compunction hesitation reservation doubt

Opposites

indifference ruthlessness

Word family

Derived forms scrupulousscrupulosityscrupleless

Related forms scrupulous unscrupulous

Etymology

From Latin 'scrupulus' ('small sharp stone', hence 'uneasiness, anxiety'), diminutive of 'scrupus' ('rough pebble').

scrupulus Latin scrupus Latin

View etymology graph ->

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# scruple

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈskrupəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈskruːpəl/

## Meanings
1. a moral hesitation or qualm about an action's rightness

## Examples
- He had no scruple about lying to win the argument.

## Synonyms
- qualm
- misgiving
- compunction
- hesitation
- reservation
- doubt

## Antonyms
- indifference
- ruthlessness

## Derived Forms
- scrupulous
- scrupulosity
- scrupleless

## Related Forms
- scrupulous
- unscrupulous

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: scrupulus
- Root: scrupus

## Etymology
From Latin 'scrupulus' ('small sharp stone', hence 'uneasiness, anxiety'), diminutive of 'scrupus' ('rough pebble').

## AI Etymology
Scruple comes from Latin 'scrupulus' ('small sharp stone', hence 'uneasiness, anxiety'), diminutive of 'scrupus' ('rough pebble'). The historical chain includes Latin scrupulus and Latin scrupus. Older glosses in the chain include "scrupulus", "small sharp stone", "uneasiness, anxiety", and "scrupus", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, scruple is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun and verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun and verb, with the sense "a moral hesitation or qualm about an action's rightness". English derivatives include scrupulous, scrupulosity, and scrupleless; related forms include scrupulous and unscrupulous. The result is an English noun and verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Ethics & Social Judgment

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scruple

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