Pouzdanje

Pouzdanje is a noun used in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Montenegrin to denote trust, confidence, or reliance. It refers to the belief that a person, institution, or system will act in a dependable way, and to the degree of confidence someone places in another person or in an outcome. The term can also describe the reliability or sturdiness of an object or process in technical or formal contexts.

The word is closely related to pouzdan meaning reliable and to the verb uzdati se or uzdavanje, meaning to entrust. In everyday language, pouzdanje is used with phrases such as pouzdanje u nekoga (trust in someone), pouzdanje u institucije (trust in institutions), or pouzdanje u vlastite sposobnosti (confidence in one’s own abilities).

In practice, pouzdanje often emphasizes belief in reliability or the ongoing state of being trusted, whereas synonymous terms like povjerenje tend to reflect a broader sense of trust or confidence in people. In technical or organizational usage, pouzdanje can translate to reliability, as in pouzdanje sustava or pouzdanje mehanizama.

Notes on usage: pouzdanje is common in formal and informal contexts and is part of a small semantic field that includes povjerenje (trust), pouzdanost (reliability), and vjerovanje (belief). The exact choice among them depends on nuance and register.