Verisimilar

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪmələ/

Definitions

1. Having the appearance of being true or real; likely or probable
2. Resembling the truth in appearance or quality, as well as being plausible or possible in a given context
3. Exhibiting a likeness to reality or authenticity while also being believable or credible under certain circumstances

Etymology: "Verisimilar" is built from two Latin words that were once a phrase: "vērī", the genitive of "vērus" meaning "true", and "similis", meaning "like" or "similar". Together they produced "vērisimilis", literally "having the appearance of truth". The pairing shows up in the word's own history: "vērī similis" was originally two separate words sitting side by side before they fused into one. English took the Latin form directly, so the word is a borrowing rather than something that evolved through French. Its ancestry is also why "very" and "similar" appear in the same family of notes, since the Latin "vērī" and the English "very" share a root meaning true, and "similar" comes from the same Latin "similis" that sits inside the word.

Synonyms: plausible, likely, probable

Antonyms: unlikely, improbable