plausible
adjective
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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You Can Believe This History of Plausible
Put your hands together for plausible, a word with a sonorous history. Today the word usually means "reasonable" or "believable," but its origins lie in the sensory realm, rather than that of the mind. In fact, plausible comes to us from the Latin adjective plausibilis, meaning "worthy of applause," which in turn derives from the verb plaudere, meaning "to applaud or clap." Other plaudere words include applaud, plaudit (the earliest meaning of which was "a round of applause"), and explode (from the Latin explodere, meaning "to drive off the stage by clapping"). Will the evolution of plaudere continue? Quite plausibly, and to that we say "Bravo."
Synonyms
Examples of plausible in a Sentence
René Heller, Scientific American, January 2015
I watch the ospreys who nest on Perch Island high atop their white spruce. Our sense of a plausible summer depends much on their diligent success at nest-building and procreation, and on their chicks fledging in late August.
—Richard Ford, Wall Street Journal, 14-15 June 2008
… I'd mastered the quick size-up. Does the person seem agreeable over coffee at the drugstore counter and picking up his mail at the post office, drive a plausible vehicle, and know the weather forecast?
—Edward Hoagland, Harper's, June 2007
… string theorists can exhibit plausible models of a unified Universe, but unfortunately they cannot explain why we inhabit a particular one.
—Michael Atiyah, Nature, 22-29 Dec. 2005
it's a plausible explanation for the demise of that prehistoric species
Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 13 Nov. 2024
Yet, any behavioral impacts of these chemicals are summarily disavowed when there is plausible causal relationship that has been well-studied in mammals.
—Saleem H. Ali, Forbes, 6 Nov. 2024
It’s never been plausible to portray the luminous Russell as an unkempt tomboy who can’t be bothered to brush her hair.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 30 Oct. 2024
The only plausible way Europe can achieve what the authors lay out is by turning the European Union into a supranational empire, with all the resultant repressions that come from creating such an entity.
—Sumantra Maitra, Foreign Affairs, 4 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Plausible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plausible. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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plausible
adjective
from Latin plausibilis "deserving applause, pleasing," from plausus, past participle of plaudere "to clap" — related to applaud, explode, plaudit see Word History at explode
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