Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Credulous |
CredulousAdjective1. Disposed to believe on little evidence; "the gimmick would convince none but the most credulous". 2. Showing a lack of judgment or experience; "so credulous he believes everything he reads". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "credulous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Antonym: incredulous (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Belief | Confiding, suspectless; unsuspecting, unsuspicious; void of suspicion; credulous; wedded to. |
Credulity | Verb: be credulous; Adjective: jurare in verba magistri; follow implicitly; swallow, gulp down; take on trust; take for granted, take for gospel; run away with a notion, run away with an idea; jump to a conclusion, rush to a conclusion; think the moon is made of green cheese; take for granted, grasp the shadow for the substance; catch at straws, grasp at straws. |
Credulous person; (dupe). | |
Adjective: credulous, gullible; easily deceived; simple, green, soft, childish, silly, stupid; easily convinced; over-credulous, over confident, over trustful; infatuated, superstitious; confiding; (believing). | |
Dupe | Adjective: credulous; mistaken; (error). |
Misjudgment | Narrow-minded, narrow-souled; mean-spirited; confined, illiberal, intolerant, besotted, infatuated, fanatical, entete, positive, dogmatic, conceited; opinative, opiniative; opinioned, opinionate, opinionative, opinionated; self-opinioned, wedded to an opinion, opini_tre; bigoted; (obstinate); crotchety, fussy, impracticable; unreasonable, stupid; credulous; warped. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Credulous |
| English words defined with "credulous": believingly ♦ Credent, credulously ♦ Gobemouche ♦ overcredulous ♦ Simple obligation ♦ Tell that to the marines. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "credulous": Accepted ♦ Green in my Eye, GULL, GULLIVER ♦ kremvax. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "credulous": incredulous. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Do you mean that in order to save his contemptible life, he dared to impress upon our credulous simplicity? (The Pirates of Penzance; writing credit: William S. Gilbert; Wilford Leach) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Jonathan Swift | The most positive men are the most credulous. |
Menander | He that lends an easy and credulous ear to calumny, is either a man of very ill morals, or he has no more sense and understanding than a child. |
William James | Modern man . . . has not ceased to be credulous . . . the need to believe haunts him. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He was stupefied, uncertain, credulous, convinced, bewildered. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Credulous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Credulous" is used about 35 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 35 | 58,339 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "credulous": credulous guy ♦ credulous person. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
credulous | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "credulous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | që beson lehtë (credent), naiv (fond, ingenuous, lamb, naïve, naif, simpleminded, untutored). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | ساذج (artless, drip, gaga, gimp, green, guileless, gullible, honest, ingenuous, innocent, mug, naive, ninny, oafish, pastoral, patsy, platitudinous, primitive, provincial, silly, simple, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly), سرعة التصديق (credulity), الاستعداد لتصديق كل شيئ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | лековерен (dupable, gullible, simple, simple minded, soft, unseeing), доверчив (confidential, reliant, trustful, unsuspecting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | dùvìřivý (dewy-eyed, gullible, trustful, unsuspecting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | lichtgelovig. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | kredema. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | góðtrúgvin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ساده لوح (Dupe, Mug, Nincompoop, Oaf, Sawney, Simpleton, Sot), زودباور (Untutored). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | herkkäuskoinen (gullible, unsuspecting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | crédule, naïf. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | leichtgläubig (credulously, gullible, gullibly), gutgläubig. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | εύπιστοσ (gudgeon, gullible, softy, sucker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מאמין לכל "בר. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | hiszékeny (confiding, fond, green, gullible, quick of belief). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | credulo (gullible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | credjalagh (naive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | godtroende (gullible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | edulouscray crédulo (lamb). (various references) crezãtor, credul (gull, gullible, unseeing), naiv (artless, deceivable, dupable, dupe, green, gull, gullible, naïve, naif, puerile, silly, simple minded, simpleton, sincere, verdant). (various references) легковерный (gullible). (various references) lakoveran (gullible). (various references) crédulo (confiding, green, gullible). (various references) lättrogen (gullible, innocent), godtrogen (confiding, confinding, naïve, naive, simple, simple minded, unsuspecting). (various references) saf (absolute, all, artless, candid, clean, clear, country bumpkin, deceivable, dewy-eyed, distilled, dupe, elemental, elementary, entire, facile, fine, genuine, greenhorn, gudgeon, guileless, gull, gullible, harmless, homespun, honest, immaculate, ingenuous, innocent, juggins, mere, naïve, pigeon, pristine, pure, pure-minded, rank, raw, real, refined, simple, simple minded, simple simon, simple-hearted, sterling, unadulterated, unalloyed, unblended, uncontaminated, undiluted, unmixed, unsophisticated, unsuspicious, untutored, unworldly, witless), herşeye inanan. (various references) легковірний (gullible), довірливий (confident, confidential, credent, gullible, trustful, unsuspecting). (various references) cả tin (confiding, over-credulous), nhẹ dạ (frivolous, ill-advised, light). (various references) hygoelus (gullible), hygoel (credible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | credulus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "credulous": credulously, credulousness, credulousnesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "credulous": incredulous, overcredulous. (additional references) | |
Words containing "credulous": incredulously. (additional references) | |
| |
"Credulous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Carduelis, Cekuolis, coeruleus, creadulous, credilous, Crediou, creduious, creduloys, credulus, ridulous. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "credulous" (pronounced 'Cred"u*lous'): Acanthocephalous, Acarpellous, Acephalous, Achilous, Acholous, Achylous, Acidulous, Adenophyllous, Amphibolous, Amyelous, Androcephalous, Anemorphilous, Angulous, Anhelous, Anisodactylous, Anisophyllous, Anomalous, Anomophyllous, Anthophilous, Antibillous, Antivariolous, Apellous, Aphyllous, Arenulous, Argillous, Artiodactylous, Aurocephalous, Autocephalous, Basylous, benevolous, Biangulous, Bibulous, Bicephalous, Calculous, Callous, Cancellous, Caryophyllous, Cautelous, Cavernulous, Cephalous, Chylous, Corpusculous, Daedalous, Decaphyllous, Dedalous, Fibrillous, Filipendulous, fistulous, Flosculous, Folliculous. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-l-o-r-s-u-u" | |
-1 letter: closured, douceurs, ulcerous. | |
-2 letters: closure, cloured, colures, coursed, curdles, douceur, scolder, scoured, sourced. | |
-3 letters: ceorls, cerous, closed, closer, clouds, clours, coders, colder, coleus, colure, course, credos, cresol, crouse, crudes, curdle, curled, cursed, curule, decors, dorsel, douser, durocs, escudo, louder, loured, loused, lucres, oculus, oscule, resold, roused, scored, solder, souled, source, soured, ulcers, uredos. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-d-e-l-o-r-s-u-u" | |
+2 letters: credulously, incredulous. | |
+3 letters: glucuronides. | |
+4 letters: credulousness, glucuronidase, incredulously, ludicrousness, overcredulous, thunderclouds. | |
+5 letters: discourteously, glucuronidases, ridiculousness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
