credible

From Middle English credible, borrowed from Middle French credible, from Latin crēdibilis (“worthy of belief”), from crēdō (“believe”); see credit.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɛdəbəl/

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credible (comparative more credible, superlative most credible)

1. Believable or plausible.

   credible alibi

   think up a credible excuse

   • 2022 December 28, Philip Haigh, “Building the case for West Midlands rail improvements”, in RAIL, number 973, page 25:

     While WMRE makes clear that electrification is the only credible option to decarbonise, it says that bi-mode trains could be used in the interim.

2. Dependable, trustworthy, or reliable.

   credible sources

3. Authentic or convincing.

   credible acting

• incredible, noncredible, uncredible

• credibility
• credit
• credence
• credential

• street cred

• “credible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “credible”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• credeable, credebule, credibele, credibill, credyble, credybyl

Borrowed from Middle French crédible, from Latin crēdibilis; compare crede, credence, and creditour.

• IPA^(key): /krɛˈdibəl/, /ˈkrɛdibəl/

credible (Late Middle English)

1. credible (believable, plausible)
2. credible (dependable, reliable)
3. naive; easily trusting

• English: credible

• “credīble, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.