ENGLISH
REFERENCE

credibility

n.
US //ˌkɹɛdəˈbɪɫɪti// UK //kɹˌɛdɪbˈɪlɪti// cred·i·bil·i·ty
  1. 1 trustworthiness (n.)
    C1 Advanced Academic

    the quality that makes people trust you or believe what you say.

    the quality of being trusted and believed in. Uncountable in general usage.

    Example

    The scandal caused the politician to lose all his credibility with the voters.

    Example

    The administration's failure to address the initial reports of corruption severely undermined its credibility during the subsequent election cycle.

    Usage

    Often used with the verbs 'gain', 'lose', 'undermine', or 'establish'.
  2. 2 legal believability (n.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Formal Law

    how much a judge or jury can believe a witness or a piece of evidence.

    the believability of a witness or testimony, evaluated based on consistency and probability.

    Example

    The lawyer questioned the witness's credibility because she had lied in the past.

    Example

    The defence sought to impeach the witness's credibility by introducing evidence of a prior conviction for perjury.

    Teacher's tip

    In legal contexts, credibility is often 'attacked' or 'bolstered' through cross-examination.
Origin

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

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related words

Last updated June 20, 2026