plausible

English

Etymology

From Latin plausibilis (“deserving applause, praiseworthy, acceptable, pleasing”), from the participle stem of plaudere (“to applaud”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈplɔː.zɪ.bl̩/, /ˈplɔː.zə.bl̩/
(General American, cot–caught merger, Atlantic Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈplɑ.zɪ.bəl/, [ˈplɑ.zɪ.bl̩]
- Audio (Southern California): (file)
(General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈploː.zɪ.bəl/
(New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈploː.zə.bəl/
(Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈplaː.zə.bəl/
Hyphenation: plau‧si‧ble

Adjective

plausible (comparative more plausible, superlative most plausible)

Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; conceivably true or likely.
Synonyms: credible, believable, reasonable, tenable, specious

Antonyms: implausible, incredible, unbelievable, far-fetched

a plausible excuse
- 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformative Grammar: A First Course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 64:
  In short, the twin assumptions that syntactic rules are category-based, and that there are a highly restricted finite set of categories in any natural language (perhaps no more than a dozen major categories), together with the assumption that the child either knows (innately) or learns (by experience) that all rules are structure-dependent ( =category-based), provide a highly plausible model of language acquisition, in which languages become learnable in a relatively short, finite period of time (a few years).
- 2014, “Little Green Men”: A Primer on Modern Russian Unconventional Warfare, Ukraine 2013–2014‎^[1], Fort Bragg, North Carolina: The United States Army Special Operations Command, page 43:
  Russian SPETSNAZ are irregular forces that operate covertly, providing the Russian government plausible deniability.
Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.
a plausible pretext; plausible manners; a plausible delusion
(obsolete) Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
- 1693, John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams:
  capable of receiving a plauſible Anſwer
- 1955, William H. Townsend, Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky:
  […] a coachman named Richard, who was described as a "sensible, well-behaved yellow boy, who is plausible and can read and write."

Derived terms

Translations

likely, acceptable

Armenian: please add this translation if you can
Catalan: plausible (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Czech: přijatelný (cs), věrohodný, uvěřitelný (cs), hodnověrný (cs), plauzibilní (cs)
Dutch: plausibel (nl), aannemelijk (nl), aanneembaar (nl)
Esperanto: kredebla, kredinda, verŝajna
Estonian: usutav, tõenäoline, mõistlik, vastuvõetav
Finnish: uskottava (fi)
French: plausible (fr)
Galician: plausible (gl), plausíbel (gl)
Georgian: დამაჯერებელი (damaǯerebeli), შესაძლებელი (šesaʒlebeli), სავარაუდო (savaraudo), მოსალოდნელი (mosalodneli)
German: plausibel (de), glaubhaft (de)
Greek: ευλογοφανής (el) (evlogofanís)
Hebrew: סביר (he) m (savír)
Hindi: मुमकिन (hi) (mumkin)
Hungarian: elfogadható (hu)
Japanese: please add this translation if you can
Khmer: please add this translation if you can
Korean: please add this translation if you can
Latin: probābilis
Latvian: iespējams, ticams
Macedonian: уверлив (uverliv), веродостоен (verodostoen), веројатен (verojaten)
Manx: so-chredjallagh
Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
Polish: do przyjęcia (pl), wiarygodny (pl), prawdopodobny (pl)
Portuguese: plausível (pt)
Romanian: plauzibil (ro)
Russian: правдоподо́бный (ru) (pravdopodóbnyj), вероя́тный (ru) (verojátnyj), похо́жий на пра́вду (poxóžij na právdu), состоя́тельный (ru) (sostojátelʹnyj), аргументи́рованный (ru) (argumentírovannyj), прие́млемый (ru) (prijémlemyj)
Serbo-Croatian: plauzibilan (sh), prihvatljiv (sh), moguć, vjerojatan (sh), verovatan (sh)
Spanish: probable (es), plausible (es)
Swedish: rimlig (sv), plausibel (sv)
Thai: please add this translation if you can
Ukrainian: правдоподібний (uk) (pravdopodibnyj), ймовірний (uk) (jmovirnyj)

obtaining approbation

Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Dutch: please add this translation if you can
Finnish: uskottava (fi), pettävä (fi), harhaanjohtava (fi)
Russian: благови́дный (ru) (blagovídnyj)
Ukrainian: пристойний m (prystojnyj), заслуговуючий на довіру m (zasluhovujučyj na doviru)