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Reticence vs Diffident - What's the difference?

reticence | diffident |

As a noun reticence

is reticence.

As an adjective diffident is

(archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

reticence

English

Noun

  • tight-lippedness, discretion, avoidance of saying too much
  • a silent and reserved nature

    • Quotations

    * 1890 , Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray : *:Basil's absurd fits of jealousy, his wild devotion, his extravagant panegyrics, his curious reticences , — he understood them all now, and he felt sorry. * 1897 , Bram Stoker, Dracula : *: You must not be angry with him, Art, because his very reticence means that all his brains are working for her good.(attention)

    Synonyms

    * reserve, secrecy, taciturnity * bashfulness, demureness, diffidence, quietness, reservation, shyness, timidity

    Antonyms

    * openness, talkativeness * loquaciousness, ostentation

    Related terms

    * reticent, reticently

    diffident

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (archaic): Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.
  • Lacking confidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve.
  • *
    • Having therefore—but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter VIII , passage=At an early point in these exchanges I had started to sidle to the door, and I now sidled through it, rather like a diffident crab on some sandy beach trying to avoid the attentions of a child with a spade.}}