credibility

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

• IPA^(key): /kɹɛd.əˈbɪ.ɫɪ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

credibility (countable and uncountable, plural credibilities)

1. Reputation impacting one's ability to be believed.

   After weeks of blowing smoke, her credibility with me was next to nil.

   • 2017 May 16, Dylan Byers, “Does anyone in Trump's White House have credibility?”, in CNN Business‎^[1]:

     The inability of Trump's own spokespeople to speak authoritatively on the president's thinking and actions -- a challenge even Trump himself has acknowledged -- has left the White House with an enormous credibility gap, and has tarnished the reputations of many of its most visible spokespeople.

   • 2022 January 26, “Network News: DfT awaits verdict on COVID 'partygate' scandal”, in RAIL, number 949, page 6:

     The 'partygate' controversy has played a major part in undermining the credibility of Boris Johnson and his Government and has led to calls from senior MPs for him to resign.

2. (law) Believability of statements by a witness, as measured by whether the testimony is probable or improbable when judged by common experience.

• (reputation impacting one's ability to be believed): believability, personal capital

• cred

• credence
• credible
• credit