CREDULITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does credulity mean? 

• CREDULITY (noun)
  The noun CREDULITY has 1 sense:

1. tendency to believe readily

  Familiarity information: CREDULITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CREDULITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tendency to believe readily

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("credulity" is a kind of...):

trust; trustfulness; trustingness (the trait of believing in the honesty and reliability of others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "credulity"):

overcredulity (too much credulity)

Derivation:

credulous (disposed to believe on little evidence)

credulous (showing a lack of judgment or experience)

 Context examples 

As Challenger spoke of his pterodactyl I glanced at Professor Summerlee, and for the first time I seemed to see some signs of a dawning credulity and repentance.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No lurking horrors were to upbraid him for his easy credulity.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I have perused several books of travels with great delight in my younger days; but having since gone over most parts of the globe, and been able to contradict many fabulous accounts from my own observation, it has given me a great disgust against this part of reading, and some indignation to see the credulity of mankind so impudently abused.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Really your organs of wonder and credulity are easily excited: you seem, by the importance of you all—my good mama included—ascribe to this matter, absolutely to believe we have a genuine witch in the house, who is in close alliance with the old gentleman.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"Oh, no," said the first girl, "it couldn't be that, because he was in the American army during the war." As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with enthusiasm. "You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody's looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)