# credibility

Pronunciation: US say "kred-uh-BIL-uh-tee" /ˌkɹɛdəˈbɪləti/; UK say "kred-uh-BIL-i-tee" /ˌkɹɛdəˈbɪlɪti/

## Noun

1. A reputation that affects how readily others will believe what one says.
   - Simple: The quality of being trusted and believed by other people.
   - _The newspaper's credibility suffered after it published an unverified story._
   - _Years of accurate reporting gave the broadcaster real credibility with viewers._
2. The believability of a witness's statements, judged by how probable or improbable the testimony seems against common experience.
   - Simple: How believable a witness's words are, based on whether the story makes sense.
   - _The defense attacked the credibility of the key witness during cross-examination._
   - _Inconsistencies in his account steadily undermined the credibility of his testimony._

## Origin

Borrowed from French crédibilité, from Medieval Latin credibilitas, from Latin credibilis. By surface analysis, it is credible + -ity.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/credibility (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).