Believable

How to spell believable

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce believable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does believable mean?

1. adjectiveAble to be accepted as true, likely, or convincing.

Believable in a sentence

• Her excuse for the late delivery sounded perfectly believable.

• The actor gave a believable performance as a struggling shop owner.

Where does believable come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the verb 'believe', which descends from Old English 'belyfan' or 'geliefan', meaning 'to trust in' or 'to hold dear'. That older verb was built from an intensifying prefix 'be-' joined to a root related to 'lief', an Old English word meaning 'dear' or 'beloved', so to believe something originally carried the warm sense of holding it close and trusting it. The same Germanic root surfaces in German 'glauben' (to believe) and 'lieb' (dear). The adjective 'believable' formed much later in English by attaching the Latin-derived suffix '-able', meaning 'capable of being', so the whole word simply means 'capable of being believed'. The spelling trap lives in the stem: the 'ie' follows the familiar 'i before e' pattern of 'believe', and the silent final 'e' of 'believe' is dropped before the '-able' ending.

How the word is built

• believe (from be- intensive
• lieve: to hold dear, trust)
• -able (suffix: capable of)