Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality of appearing to be true or real. See Synonyms at truth.
- n. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The quality or state of being verisimilar; the appearance of truth; probability; likelihood: as, the verisimilitude of a story.
- n. That which is verisimilar; that which has the appearance of a verity or fact.
Wiktionary
- n. the property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality, realism
- n. a statement which merely appears to be true
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality or state of being verisimilar; the appearance of truth; probability; likelihood.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true
Etymologies
- From Latin vērīsimilitūdō ("likeness to truth"), more correctly written separately as vērī similitūdō; from vērī, genitive singular of vērus ("true, real"), + similitūdō ("likeness, resemblance"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin vērīsimilitūdō, from vērīsimilis, verisimilar; see verisimilar. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In science fiction this verisimilitude is achieved by using explanations, (or simply terms and phrases that hint of explanations) that fit into the scientific world-view: 'hyperspace' is a valid setting for a science fiction scene, but 'heaven' is not.”
“Where the story of the Guardians lacks in verisimilitude and its painfully similarity to the plot of Avatar (the plight of the Ga'Hoole tree dwellers cum Na'vi tree of life), it makes up for in being a fulfilling excuse for 3-D.”
“The effectiveness lies in verisimilitude, and this is a vital point.”
“Thirdly, verisimilitude is a very slippery concept philosophically speaking anyway.”
“Firstly, verisimilitude is a scientific value, one deeply embedded in the philosophy of science and crudely defined for SF as the desire to write a piece where everything is technically correct from the standpoint of contemporary scientific theory.”
“Negotiation and solidarity are the twin subjects of this quietly impressive docudrama, and Mungiu's commitment to verisimilitude is so scrupulous that he deliberately introduces the equivalent of Chekhov's famed gun without the slightest intention of providing a final-act payoff.”
“You have to admire any woman who uses the word verisimilitude correctly, and I'm not just saying that because she reads the blog and I want to have sex with her.”
“In my experience, the key feature here is "verisimilitude"--the illusion of truth.”
“45These discontinuities should not be considered "flaws" in verisimilitude; rather, they disclose that the prerogative of the studioli, like Cusa's religious icon, was to strike — even unsettle — the emotions of its observers.”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“To say that fiction is artifice will cause no controversy, and at its best Wood’s book serves as an ingenious examination of some of the methods by which such artifice is created; but Wood’s latter claim, that fiction is rooted in verisimilitude, is considerably more divisive, and it is an argument to which Wood returns again and again throughout the book, to worry at its edges.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘verisimilitude’.
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 204 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 476 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
Mat8iou's interesting words
Words I've come across & want to remember.
bloviation, elginism, panegyric, infandous, boke, pangram, quine, pareto principle, panopticon, snib, escutcheon, bokeh and 129 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 332 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for verisimilitude.
pradyumnaojha Curent day politicians are good at presenting facts which are verisimilitude. Feb 18, 2013
Noelle Knight "I carried it behind the screen that concealed the hair-washing area, and wiped at a perfectly clean area just for verisimilitude..." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris Feb 5, 2011
isoglossian I always wonder if there is some kind of word-formation technique corresponding to this word. I'll be verihappy if there is~ May 17, 2009
swimsuitissue I love the Teenage Fanclub song by the same name:
"I don't need an attitude
Rebellion is a platitude
I only hope the verse is good
I hate verisimilitude" Jan 10, 2009
milosrdenstvi Of course, the most famous usage of it in literature:
"Corroborative detail intended to provide artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."
-- W.S. Gilbert, "The Mikado" Jul 4, 2008
uselessness I personally like my list better than Letterman's namby-pamby thing. Apr 20, 2007
spicolli One of the Top Ten Words That Sound Great When Spoken by James Earl Jones Apr 20, 2007
stloup77 When this word entered the annals of philosophy over half a century ago, no one would have anticipated that the word would come to describe a chasm captivating a generation of tv watchers. Mar 1, 2007