credulous
Americanadjective
-
willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullible.
- Synonyms:
- unsuspecting, trustful
-
marked by or arising from credulity.
a credulous rumor.
adjective
-
tending to believe something on little evidence
-
arising from or characterized by credulity
credulous beliefs
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of credulous
First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin crēdulus, equivalent to crēdere “to believe” + -ulus adjective suffix denoting a quality or tendency; see -ous
Explanation
People who believe things easily without having to be convinced are credulous. Sales people are always hoping that someone credulous picks up the phone during a sales call. Credulous comes from the 16th-century Latin credulus, or "easily believes." A synonym for credulous is gullible, and both terms describe a person who accepts something willingly without a lot of supporting facts. Calling someone credulous can imply that the person is naive and simple. An individual isn't necessarily insulted by being called credulous, though, because some objects of belief, like religions and unicorns, come with a willing leap of faith for believing in what is unseen.
Vocabulary lists containing credulous
Believe It or Not: Cred
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Grade 11, List 3
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1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Credulous media narratives about the “brilliance” of ChatGPT focus on these successes “without a serious look at the scope of the errors,” observe computer scientists Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2023
Credulous economists demanded numbers, “however dubious their provenance”, and Maddison supplied them.
From Economist • Apr. 29, 2010
Credulous In West New York, N. J., one Paul Bethamen, weaver, husband, father, awoke in a room he had never seen before.
From Time Magazine Archive
Credulous persons who enjoy a faith in parental paradoxes were no doubt disconcerted last week when they discovered the result of researches into the heredity of students at Yale and Harvard.
From Time Magazine Archive
Credulous child that she was, not the faintest shadow of a doubt floated across her mind.
From The Redemption of David Corson by Goss, Charles Frederic
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
