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 (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

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.

Quotations

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

Related terms

• veracity
• verisimilar
• verisimilarity
• verisimilitudinous

 

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, Authentizität (de) f, Wirklichkeitsnähe f
• Hungarian: valószerűség (hu), élethűség (hu)
• Latin: verisimilitudo f
• Macedonian: веро́јатност f (verójatnost)
• 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 — see also truthiness

• 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. 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

• factoid
• probability

Further reading

• “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.

French

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /və.ʁi.si.mi.li.tyd/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

verisimilitude f (plural verisimilitudes)

1. verisimilitude