credulity means A willingness to believe in someone or something in the absence of reasonable proof; credulousness.
credulity is pronounced /kɹɪˈd͡ʒuːlɪti/.
Why “credulity” is a great word
A readiness to believe something on little or uncertain evidence. From Middle English credulite, borrowed from Middle French credulité, from Latin crēdulitās, from crēdulus ("believing, trusting"), first attested in late Middle English (1375–1425). Unlike gullibility, which implies a foolish readiness to be deceived, or skepticism, its direct and questioning antonym, credulity is the more neutral, architectural capacity of the mind to accept. It is the unexamined nod to a stranger's too-convenient story, the miracle cure purchased from a catalog, the child's unblinking acceptance that the departed pet has simply moved to a farm—the quiet, often desperate, choice to bridge the chasm of uncertainty with the fragile plank of belief, a necessary vulnerability without which trust, and therefore society, could not exist.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English credulite (“faith, belief”), borrowed from Middle French credulité (French crédulité), from Latin crēdulitās. Corresponding to credulous + -ity (compare credulosity).
noun
- A willingness to believe in someone or something in the absence of reasonable proof; credulousness.
- Faith, credence; acceptance or maintenance of a belief.
Words closest in meaning
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