Credence

How to spell credence

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce credence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does credence mean?

1. nounBelief in or acceptance of something as true, often in the phrase 'give credence to'.

Credence in a sentence

• The new evidence lends credence to the auditor's earlier warning.

• Investors gave little credence to the rumour about a takeover.

Where does credence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Credence comes from the Latin verb credere, which meant 'to believe' or 'to trust', the same root that gives us 'creed', 'credit', and 'credible'. In medieval Latin this developed into credentia, meaning 'belief' or 'trust', and the word travelled into English through Old French during the 1300s. Its core idea has always been the mental act of accepting something as true, which is why we still speak of giving or lending credence to a claim. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed ending: it is -ence, not -ance, a clue preserved straight from the Latin credentia. Curiously, the same family produced the Italian credenza, a sideboard once used to taste food for poison before serving it, a literal test of trust, which is why a small side table in a church is still called a credence.

How the word is built

• cred- (to believe, trust)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)