credential
Americannoun
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Usually credentials.
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evidence of authority, status, rights, entitlement to privileges, or the like, usually in written form.
Only those with the proper credentials are admitted.
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Digital Technology. information that identifies an account and keeps it secure, as username and password.
The IT department assigns temporary system credentials to new employees.
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anything that provides the basis for confidence, belief, credit, etc.
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
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something that entitles a person to confidence, authority, etc
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(plural) a letter or certificate giving evidence of the bearer's identity or competence
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of credential
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English credencial, from Medieval Latin crēdenti(a); see credence, -al 1
Explanation
A credential is something that’s proof of a claim you make about yourself or your skills. You might earn a credential in computer networking that lets employers know that you’re qualified to do the job. A credential can be a particular qualification that you earn or it can refer more generally to achievements or qualities that you’ve acquired over time. You’ll most often see the word credential used in its plural form: credentials. You typically refer to your credentials to show that you're qualified to do something. Your strong academic credentials might qualify you to work as an assistant at a hip magazine during the summer.
Vocabulary lists containing credential
Believe It or Not: Cred
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The Things They Carried
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Astronauts
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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.
See Examples For:
Only 40% of the state’s 2021 high-school graduates are projected to obtain a postsecondary credential by age 26.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
At the same time Clark was damaging her image, her Fever bosses came under fire for trying to protect that image by revoking the credential of veteran Fever and Pacers beat reporter Scott Agness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
Francis is Hegseth’s military assistant—and that’s his key credential as far as the self-named “secretary of war” is concerned.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
Users were targeted by a so-called "credential stuffing" attack in which hackers used passwords exposed in previous breaches to access 23andMe accounts for which people had used similar credentials.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
The Academy’s instructors were all correction officers with a training credential.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
A Tribeca spokesperson said Savetsky was not in the film and was not credentialed by the festival, but was invited to the premiere by the film team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
You can start with the IRS directory of credentialed professionals.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 1, 2026
Jonathan Alpert makes a good case that “No Kings” events are bad group therapy for the highly credentialed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
But also interspersed between the credentialed professionals are a gaggle of YouTubers, streamers, and TikTokers—with mounted iPhones—documenting the saga in real time.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
Identification card: An applicant requesting relief would be referred to a credentialed volunteer relief committee.
From The Great Steel Strike and its Lessons by William Z. Foster
“Our lawyers feel it’s OK to do it under the right physician credentialing and infrastructure, and in the right states,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
North Carolina’s AI Academy at NC State, built with more than 100 corporate partners, combines university credentialing with applied workplace training.
From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026
The tax bill also expands eligible expenses to include credentialing and licensing programs such coursework or tests to become a fitness trainer, a certified public accountant, or a lawyer.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
He posted a list on X of what he called “press credentialing FOR DUMMIES: Press no longer roams free Press must wear visible badge Credentialed press no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts.”
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025
Pavri said 14 more CSU campuses are in the process of developing PK-3 credentialing programs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2024
As we chopped up the vegetables in a light rain, we talked about all the things we had discussed in his office—John Brown, labor movements, the need to break away from credentialled society.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 15, 2019
More than two hundred thousand people applied for one of the sixteen spots on Season 1, and throughout the show’s early years the candidates were conspicuously credentialled and impressive.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 27, 2018
The oracular voice of authority is being drowned out by the aggregated voice of the Everyman, the credentialled scholar dethroned by the anonymous Wikipedia contributor.
From Economist ● Apr. 14, 2016
They were credentialled, like Lord Martin Rees, an astrophysicist and the co-founder of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 23, 2015
Trying to save the crew was all that kept me credentialled.
From Nature ● Sep. 4, 2013
Following Friday's ruling, the PPA said in a statement to CBS News that it "celebrates the decision by a federal judge today that the Pentagon's press credentialling policy violated the US Constitution".
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2026
The problem was that those with power were the ones determining how much credentialling was sufficient, making young people feel that they needed a degree, no matter the cost.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 2, 2019
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.
