opinion

opinion (ə-pĭnʹyən) noun

Synonyms: opinion, view, sentiment, feeling, belief, conviction, persuasion. These nouns signify something a person believes or accepts as being sound or true. Opinion is applicable to a judgment, especially a personal judgment, based on grounds insufficient to rule out the possibility of dispute: It is wise to seek a second medical opinion before submitting to surgery. "A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible" (Woodrow Wilson). View stresses individuality of outlook: "My view is . . . that freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have or the views they express" (Hugo L. Black). Sentiment and especially feeling stress the role of emotion as a determinant: "If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences . . . reason is of no use to us" (George Washington). The economist gave us her feelings on the causes of inflation. A belief is a conclusion, not necessarily derived firsthand, to which one subscribes strongly: "Our belief in any particular natural law cannot have a safer basis than our unsuccessful critical attempts to refute it" (Karl Popper). Conviction is a belief that excludes doubt: "Responsible journalism is journalism responsible in the last analysis to the editor's own conviction of what, whether interesting or only important, is in the public interest" (Walter Lippmann). Persuasion applies to a confidently held opinion not necessarily based on intellectual considerations: "He had a strong persuasion that Likeman was wrong" (H.G. Wells).