gläubig

Gläubig is a German adjective describing someone who has faith or belief, typically in a religious sense. The word is formed from the noun Glaube (faith, belief) with the adjectival suffix -ig, and it can denote both personal religiosity and a general conviction in a belief system. In everyday use, gläubig often refers to individuals who belong to a religious community and participate in its practices, but it can also describe a broader, non-denominational sense of conviction.

The term is common across contexts involving religion, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other faiths. It can be used neutrally in descriptive writing or with a positive connotation when highlighting devotion, commitment, or moral grounding. However, gläubig can carry a negative nuance if contrasted with skepticism or credulity, for example in the compound leichtgläubig, meaning easily convinced or gullible.

Antonyms include ungläubig (unbelieving) and atheistisch (atheistic), which help distinguish between belief and non-belief or disbelief. In usage, gläubig is often paired with phrases such as gläubig sein (to be religious or to have faith) or to belong to a religious community. In translation, it corresponds to English terms like believing, devout, or pious when describing religiosity, and to credulous in contexts that emphasize naivety. The nuance of gläubig depends heavily on context and tone.