credibility.

The degree to which a person, account or claim can reasonably be believed.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• source credibility
• credibility of testimony

On the page

The witness’s credibility depended partly on whether independent records supported the account.

Institutional prestige alone did not establish the claim’s credibility.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Usually uncountable; use a plural for distinct instances or types only where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: evidence, argumentation, evaluation, qualification. Disciplines: reasoning, research, essay writing. Commonness: moderately common.