believabilityn.

1851 Bible & People 1 563 The perspicuity of this wondrous article, is further manifest, in the plainness with which the believabilities are indicated.

1963 J. B. Ludwig Confusions xi. 245 I sought out believabilities to account for such a sudden turn.

1865 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic (ed. 6) I. ii. vii. 305 Inconceivability, in Mr. Spencer's theory, is only a test of truth, inasmuch as it is a test of believability.

1906 C. H. Ames 8 Mar. in W. B. Mershon Passenger Pigeon xiii. 175 Several accounts have reached us, bearing every mark of believability, that considerable flights of geese, swans and ducks have been drowned in the surf off the New Jersey and Maryland shores.

1937 V. Loggins I hear Amer. ii. 11 Moderns, well drilled in the rules of realism, distrust all other rules. They believe in believability.

1972 R. E. Stanley in D. W. Karger & R. G. Murdick New Product Venture Managem. xiii. 243/1 Publicity is viewed as news by recipients and therefore possesses a high degree of believability.

2008 J. Deer & R. Dal Vera Acting in Musical Theatre i. i. 8 In the theatre, believability has to do with our innate feeling that the actions and behaviors of the person inhabiting a role are in line with the reality the writers have created.