Word family noun credibility incredulity adjective incredible credible incredulous adverb incredibly credibly incredulously
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcredibilitycred‧i‧bil‧i‧ty /ˌkredəˈbɪləti/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] 1 BELIEVEthe quality of deserving to be believed and trusteddamage/undermine somebody’s credibility (as something) The scandal has damaged his credibility as a leader.credibility of There are serious questions about the credibility of these reports.gain/lose credibility Predictions of economic recovery have now lost all credibility.2 → credibility gapCOLLOCATIONSverbshave some/no/little credibilityBy then the president had ceased to have any credibility.give somebody/something credibilityThere's enough evidence to give credibility to this theory.undermine/damage credibilityA number of factors undermine the credibility of these statistics.destroy credibilityThe scandal nearly destroyed the FBI's credibility.establish your credibilityDave had already established his credibility with the department managers.lend credibility to somebody/something (=make something or someone have more credibility)The evidence lent credibility to their arguments.gain credibilityIt took many years for these ideas to gain credibility in the science community.lose credibilityBoth of our major political parties are losing credibility.lack/be lacking in credibilityThe new regime lacked credibility from the start.restore credibility (=get it back again after it has been damaged)His priority was to restore credibility to his government.adjectivespolitical/scientific/academic etc credibilityA school's academic credibility often depends on its exam results.low credibility (=little credibility)The organization has had low credibility among teachers.great credibility (=a lot of credibility)He has great credibility in Washington.phrasesa blow to somebody/something's credibility (=something that damages credibility)The case was a severe blow to the administration's credibility. Examples from the Corpus
credibility• News of the freebie started a credibility slide of avalanche proportions.• Being infected should not add to her credibility, while not being so should not disqualify her from comment, she says.• The scandal has ruined his credibility as a leader.• In each case, performance inevitably improves, with each small improvement restoring a measure of organizational credibility and self-respect.• If a government minister dissents then he's out, for the sake of the government's credibility.• If they do, juries should be told of the circumstances in order to assess the credibility of a witness.damage/undermine somebody’s credibility (as something)• Hume believed that four factors undermine the credibility of reports of miracles.• The practices of the press were to further undermine its credibility.• Charity knew that to protest any more would only undermine her credibility.• This rather undermines his credibility as a detached observer.• The benefit to competitiveness would be short-term, while the damage to our credibility as an economy would be massive.• The number of leaks is beginning to undermine the credibility of those who claim emails can be made secure.• The Bible's miracles, so far from supporting its claim to supernatural authority, served rather to undermine its credibility.• But that would damage the credibility of the government further and certainly affect the financial markets, analysts said. 