Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.
- adj. Giving a deceptive impression of truth or reliability.
- adj. Disingenuously smooth; fast-talking: "Ambitious, unscrupulous, energetic, ... and plausible,—a political gladiator, ready for a 'set-to' in any crowd” ( Frederick Douglass).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Deserving applause or approval; meritorious; praiseworthy; commendable.
- Seemingly worthy of acceptance or approval; apparently right, meritorious, or worthy of confidence; having a specious or superficial appearance of truth or trustworthiness: as, a plausible excuse; a plausible theory or doctrine.
- Fair-spoken and apparently worthy of confidence; using or presenting discourse or arguments that seem right and worthy of acceptance: as, a plausible person.
- Applauding; applausive.
- Synonyms Colorable, Specious, etc. See ostensible.
Wiktionary
- adj. Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.
- adj. Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.
- adj. Using specious arguments or discourse.
- adj. obsolete Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
- adj. Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.
- adj. Using specious arguments or discourse.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. apparently reasonable and valid, and truthful
- adj. given to or characterized by presenting specious arguments
Etymologies
- From Latin plausibilis ("deserving of applause"), from the participle stem of plaudere ("to applaud"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin plausibilis, deserving applause, from plausus, past participle of plaudere, to applaud. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Ever since Ronald Reagan's henchmen coined the phrase "plausible deniability," that's become our national motto.”
The Huffington Post: Ethan Casey: Terry Jones' America Is A Dangerous Place To Be
“To the skeptic's ear, when the word "plausible" needs to be included, this is a warning sign that what is described may not, in fact, be so plausible.”
“The Gang of Six relies on what it calls a "plausible baseline" of future tax rates, but that baseline does not assume a continuation of current tax policies.”
“I think that if we have a situation where the Taliban comes into power in Afghanistan, it's going to be very difficult to deter them from somehow hosting Al Qaida elements, because they can very easily establish what you call plausible deniability.”
“But the problem with coming flat out against it is that the Iraq war was what I call a plausible war.”
“Just a short time ago, Capitol Hill Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said that they were investigating what they called a plausible explanation.”
“If in the case of the CIA tapes, if congress does nothing because the evidence was destroyed and can not prove who did what just remember the term plausible deniability as it once again is being used to pull the wool over your eyes and make a fool of you, and if you do nothing to force them to prosecute everyone who had anything to do with the destruction of the tapes, and also prosecute the violations that occurred on the tapes, then you are a good man who does nothing but support evil.”
“Adenine is naturally synthesized in plausible prebiotic environments.”
“Why anyone would think this whole theory even remotely plausible is beyond me.”
“I think what will make Jeb plausible is how divided the GOP has historically been.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘plausible’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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JURI - patent law
admissible, absolute grounds ..., abstract, acquisition of th..., action for revoca..., admissibility of ..., acceptable, allowable, appeal to a court, appellant, applicant, application and 338 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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14
Allege, conclusive, counterpart, dismal, enthrall, exotic, incredulous, legendary, lurk, menagerie, naive, pander and 3 more...
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P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
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14
allege, conclusive, counterpart, dismal, enthrall, exotic, incredulous, legendary, lurk, menagerie, naive, pander and 3 more...
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This Boy's Life list 2
treacly, sepulchral, unutterable, malicious, vigilance, Aryan, lackey, plausible, emaciated, cavernous, perspicacity, scabrous and 13 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1834 more...
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A Refined Lexicon
ambivalence, ambivalent, equivocal, equivocation, equivocate, prevaricate, prevarication, quietude, quiescent, quiescence, vanquish, pluviosity and 137 more...
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Of -ibles, not -ables
Tricksy buggers! I've not included those where neither is favorable.
accessible, admissible, alible, apprehensible, audible, coercible, cognoscible, collapsible, collectible, combustible, comestible, compactible and 103 more...
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Latin Spelling Bee List
need to know these words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
inane, ambivalent, incriminate, interrupt, amicable, meticulous, animosity, curriculum, electoral, transect, condolences, bugle and 132 more...
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True or False?
Seemingly right/wrong, but actually the opposite.
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for plausible.
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