different between incredulity vs incredulous

English

Etymology

Attested since 1430. Borrowed from Old French incredulité, from Late Latin incredulitas, from Latin incredulus (“unbelieving”) + -itas (“-ity”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nk???dju?l?ti/

Noun

incredulity (usually uncountable, plural incredulities)

1. Unwillingness or inability to believe; doubt about the truth or verisimilitude of something; disbelief.
   • 1916, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, ch. 24:

     Wide went her eyes in wonder and incredulity, as she beheld this seeming apparition risen from the dead.
2. (rare) Religious disbelief, lack of faith.

Synonyms

• incredulousness

Antonyms

• credulity

Related terms

• incredibility
• incredulous

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incr?dulus (“unbelieving”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n?k??dj?l?s/
• IPA^(key): /??n.?kr?.d??.l?s/

Adjective

incredulous (comparative more incredulous, superlative most incredulous)

1. Skeptical, disbelieving, or unable to believe. [from 16th c.]
2. Expressing or indicative of incredulity. [from 17th c.]
   • 2009, Reuters (03-18-2009) , “Sun Micro Troops Fearful, Incredulous About IBM”, in Wired.com?^[1], archived from the original on 30 June 2013, retrieved 14 June 2009

     Reactions at Sun's campus, an hour's drive from San Francisco, ranged from the fearful to the incredulous.

3. (largely obsolete, now only nonstandard) Difficult to believe; incredible. [from 17th c.]
   • 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, III.4:

     Why euery thing adheres togither, that no dramme of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle, no incredulous or vnsafe circumstance [...].

   • 1984, Supreme Court of Illinois, opinion in People v Terrell, 459 N.E.2d 1337,^[2] quoted in David C. Brody, James R. Acker, and Wayne A. Logan, Criminal Law,^[3] Jones & Bartlett Publishers (2001), ?ISBN, page 564,

     Faced with these facts, we find it incredulous that [the] defendant had any intent other than the armed robbery of the service station.

Derived terms

• incredulously

Related terms

• incredulity
• credulous

Translations