- Indubitably is an adverb that means “impossible to doubt.”
- It has a meaning similar to doubtless and undoubtedly, but it represents a much stronger degree of certainty.
Do you know something you’re absolutely certain is true? Not something you think might be true or something that’s probably true. Not even something that’s true without a doubt—something that’s so true that doubt is completely out of the question. If you do, you can say that it’s indubitably true.
What does indubitably mean?
Indubitably is an adverb that means “impossible to doubt.” You know what doubt means—it’s the feeling you get when you’re not certain about something or you’re not convinced about something. Well, there’s no such thing when indubitably is involved. The adverb leaves no place for doubt.
Indubitably is an adverbial form of the adjective indubitable, which carries the same meaning. You can also use the adjective to create two nouns—indubitability and indubitableness.
Doubtless vs. undoubtedly vs. indubitably
Doubtless, undoubtedly and indubitably are three adverbs with a slight difference in meaning, which makes them interesting but easy to confuse. Doubtless means “without doubt,” but it also means “probably,” which doesn’t make it the strongest of these adverbs. So, if an equivalent of “probably” doesn’t cut it for what you have to say, and you want to take it up a notch, you would say undoubtedly, which means “without doubt.” But if you’d like to say that something is so far beyond the shadow of a doubt that it’s impossible to be questioned, you would say indubitably. Or, if you’d like, you can say undoubtably, which means the same thing.
Examples of indubitably
His objective was invariably and indubitably one: Malta’s wealth and prosperity on all counts and fronts, even at the cost of swinging the pendulum.
—Times of Malta
Was it worth it? Indubitably. DiCaprio won his first best actor Oscar, while Iñárritu took home best director and Emmanuel Lubezki won best cinematography for his searing camera work.
—The Guardian
Less commonly remarked upon is that English is likewise such a melting pot — assimilating words from multiple languages and being indubitably enhanced in the process.
—Salon
Trade, again indubitably, has contributed substantially in this last quarter-of-a-century to massive poverty-reduction, especially, but not exclusively, among the East Asian “miracle” economies.
—Forbes
