believable

From Middle English bilevable, beleevable, equivalent to believe +‎ -able.

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈliːvəbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

believable (comparative more believable or (rare) believabler, superlative most believable or (rare) believablest)

1. Capable of being believed; credible.

   believable answer

   believable account

   believable story

   • 1953 February, American Water Works Association, “Percolation and Runoff”, in Journal, volume 45, number 2, Denver, Colo., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40, columns 1–2:

     So far as cartoons are concerned these days, nothing—not even sewage works—is sacred, and everything is thereby readabler and believabler.

   • 1974 November 8, Robert LaBrasca, “‘Streetcar’ good show despite poor staging”, in The Capital Times, volume 115, number 126, Madison, Wis., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14, column 1:

     Blanche’s quavering voice and fluttering hands are indispensable elements that make it easy for her to be played in a pat and stiff manner, but Fischer has tapped deeper qualities in this acutely neurotic but tragic antiheroine to make her not only believabler, but sympathetic as well.

   • 2013, Paddy Duffy, “Introduction”, in Did That Actually Happen? A Journey Through Ridiculous Moments in Irish Politics, Dublin: Hachette Books Ireland, →ISBN, page 1:

     Like Dr Crane, I too dreamt of the day when I might see my name staring back at me in Easons, and it’s scarcely believable that the day has come. Even scarcerly believabler is the way it came about.

• plausible

• unbelievable

• “believable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “believable”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.