verisimilitude

English

WOTD – 16 April 2006

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

verisimilitude (countable and uncountable, plural verisimilitudes)

1. the property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality, realism
2. a statement which merely appears to be true
3. (in composing a fiction): faithfulness to its own rules; internal cohesion
   • 1973, Gore Vidal, Burr , chapter 16:

     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.

Quotations

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

Related terms

• verisimilitudinous
• verisimilar
• verisimilarity
• truthiness

Translations

property of seeming true

• Bulgarian: правдоподо́бност (bg) f (pravdopodóbnost)
• Dutch: waarschijnlijkheid (nl), waarachtigheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: verosimila
• Finnish: todellisuuden mukaisuus, totuudenmukaisuus (fi)
• French: verisimilitude (fr) f
• Georgian: დამაჯერებლობა (damaǯerebloba)
• German: Wahrheitsähnlichkeit f, Wahrheitsnähe f, Realitätsnähe (de) f
• Latin: verisimilitudo f

• Norwegian: sannhetsnærhet c

  Nynorsk: sanningsnærleik

• Portuguese: verossimilhança (pt) f
• Romanian: verosimilitate (ro) f, verosimilitudine (ro) f
• Russian: правдоподо́бие (ru) n (pravdopodóbije)
• Spanish: verosimilitud (es) f, verismo m

statement which merely appears to be true

• Dutch: schijnwaarheid, gelijkenis met de werkelijkheid

• Finnish: näennäistotuus
• German: Scheinwahrheit f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} مُحَاكَاة‎ (muḥākāh)
• French: ^{(please verify)} verisimilitude (fr) f
• German: ^{(please verify)} Wahrheitsnähe, ^{(please verify)} Wahrheitsähnlichkeit
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} virkelighetsnærhet m or f, ^{(please verify)} virkelighetstroskap m

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} вероватност f

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} verovatnost (sh) f, ^{(please verify)} vjerovatnost f

See also

• probability

Further reading

• “verisimilitude” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “verisimilitude” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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French

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /və.ʁi.si.mi.li.tyd/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

verisimilitude f (plural verisimilitudes)

1. verisimilitude