verisimilitude

From Middle French vérisimilitude, from Latin vērīsimilitūdō (“likeness to truth”), more correctly written separately as vērī similitūdō; from vērī, genitive singular of vērus (“true, real”), + similitūdō (“likeness, resemblance”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɛɹɪsɪˈmɪlɪtjuːd/

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verisimilitude (countable and uncountable, plural verisimilitudes)

1. The property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality.

   Coordinate terms: realisticness, realism

2. A statement which merely appears to be true.

   Synonym: truthiness

3. (in composing a fiction): Faithfulness to its own rules; internal cohesion.
   • 1973, Gore Vidal, chapter 16, in Burr:

     On July 12, Madame filed suit for divorce, naming one Jane McManus as his principal mistress. Other adulteries were noted in the interest of verisimilitude.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:verisimilitude.

• factoid
• probability

• “verisimilitude”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “verisimilitude”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Borrowed from Latin vērīsimilitūdō (“likeness to truth”), more correctly written separately as vērī similitūdō; from vērī, genitive singular of vērus (“true, real”), + similis (“like, resembling, similar”).

• IPA^(key): /və.ʁi.si.mi.li.tyd/

• Audio

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verisimilitude f (plural verisimilitudes)

1. verisimilitude