What does credulity mean?
Credulity is a noun describing a readiness to believe things without demanding evidence or questioning their plausibility. It refers less to any single act of believing than to a settled disposition: a credulous person tends to accept what they are told, whether by advertisers, acquaintances, or outright fraudsters. The word carries a distinctly critical tone, implying not just openness but a deficiency of judgment — a failure to apply the skepticism that careful thinking requires. Writers often invoke it when discussing scams, superstition, propaganda, or implausible tales: one might say a story strains credulity, meaning it asks to be believed beyond reason. Related forms include the adjective credulous and its opposite, incredulity, meaning disbelief. Credulity shares a Latin root with credit, credible, and creed, all pointing back to the act of believing. It is uncountable and formal-to-literary in register, making it a precise and useful word for discussing human gullibility with some elegance.
nounA tendency to believe things too readily or too easily, especially without sufficient evidence; willingness to accept claims on trust.
- A disposition to believe something too readily without adequate evidence (the dominant sense).
"The con artist preyed on the credulity of elderly investors, promising returns that seemed too good to be true."
"The tabloid headline stretched the credulity of even its most loyal readers."
"Her wide-eyed credulity made her an easy target for every scheme that came along."
Extremely rare; credulity is almost always used as an uncountable mass noun, so no standard plural exists in common usage.
"The memoir catalogued the youthful credulities of its author."
The word 'credulity' and the word 'credit' come from the same Latin root — which is fitting, because both involve believing something before you've verified it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of credulity
Credulity derives from the Latin credulus, meaning 'easily believed' or 'believing readily', formed from credere ('to believe') plus the suffix -ulus. English adopted the word in the late sixteenth century, borrowing directly from the Latin term. It belongs to a broad family of words built on credere, including credible, credit, creed, credential, and incredulous. Its antonym incredulity follows the same Latin pattern with the negative prefix in-.
Related word forms
How credulity is actually used
Credulity carries a negative or at least mildly critical connotation, implying a lack of healthy skepticism. It is somewhat formal in register, appearing more often in written prose than casual conversation. It is an uncountable noun in standard usage and does not normally take a plural form.
Easily confused with credulity
Credulity is the listener's tendency to believe too easily, while credibility is the quality of a person or claim that makes it believable.
Credulity means believing readily without evidence, whereas curiosity is a desire to learn or know something.