plausibility.

The extent to which an explanation or claim seems reasonable or capable of being true.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• causal plausibility
• plausibility of an account

On the page

The mechanism gave the explanation plausibility but did not establish that it had operated in this case.

Several accounts had initial plausibility until the chronology ruled two of them out.

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.