Gullible

How to spell gullible

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce gullible

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gullible mean?

1. adjectiveEasily persuaded to believe something, and therefore readily deceived or cheated.

Gullible in a sentence

• The scam targeted gullible pensioners with promises of huge returns.

• He is so gullible that he believes every rumour his colleagues invent.

Where does gullible come from?

Language of origin: Other

The word is built on the old English verb 'gull', meaning to deceive, cheat, or dupe, combined with the Latin-derived suffix '-ible', which signals 'able to be'. So gullible literally describes someone who is able to be gulled, that is, easily fooled. The verb 'gull' itself is of uncertain origin and appeared in the late 1500s; one theory links it to an early sense of 'gull' as an unfledged bird (a nestling too young to fend for itself), while another connects it to an obsolete 'gull' meaning to swallow, which fits the idea of a victim who swallows any tale. The full form 'gullible' is relatively young, surfacing in the early 1800s, and was sometimes spelled 'gullable' before the '-ible' ending settled in. That is precisely the spelling trap: the word sounds as if it could end in '-able', yet the standard, accepted form takes '-ible'.

How the word is built

• gull (to dupe or cheat)
• -ible (capable of being, from Latin -ibilis)