Word of the Day

: July 31, 2017

plausible

adjective PLAW-zuh-bul

What It Means

1 : seemingly fair, reasonable, or valuable but often not so

2 : superficially pleasing or persuasive

3 : appearing worthy of belief

plausible in Context

One problem with the horror movie is that the plot is barely plausible—there was no good reason for the kids to enter the abandoned mansion to begin with.

"Legends of giant squid attacking vessels on the open ocean are great nightmare fuel, even if they never truly occurred. But the sight of a real-life giant squid wrapping its tentacles around a man’s paddleboard, as seen in a recent video ..., makes those old myths certainly seem plausible." — Eric Grundhauser, Atlas Obscura, 20 June 2017

Did You Know?

Today the word plausible usually means "reasonable" or "believable," but it once held the meanings "worthy of being applauded" and "approving." It comes to us from the Latin adjective plausibilis ("worthy of applause"), which in turn derives from the verb plaudere, meaning "to applaud or clap." Other plaudere descendants in English include applaud, plaudit (the earliest meaning of which was "a round of applause"), and explode (from Latin explodere, meaning "to drive off the stage by clapping").