What's the difference between credibility and credulity?

Credibility


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality of being credible; credibleness; as, the credibility of facts; the credibility of witnesses.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Power urges the security council to "take the kind of credible, binding action warranted."
  • (2) The remain side have already targeted Johnson’s credibility in attacks that the Brexiters believe were orchestrated by Downing Street.
  • (3) Nevertheless, Richard Bacon MP, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, who has tirelessly tracked failings in NHS IT, said last night: "I think the chances that Lorenzo will be turned into a credible and popular product are vanishingly small.
  • (4) Father Vincent Twomey said that given the damage done by Smyth and the repercussions of his actions, "one way or another the cardinal has unfortunately lost his moral credibility".
  • (5) But over-promising has left him in a worse position with all three than he was in before, and with his credibility in tatters.
  • (6) Nevertheless, the historic poll is being touted by foreign governments as the first credible election in half a century.
  • (7) There are no credible reports of ethnic Russians facing threats in Ukraine.
  • (8) "The allegations were both serious and credible; the prosecutor should have recognised this and sought to build a prosecution … had police and prosecutors taken a different approach a prosecution might have been possible."
  • (9) And an increasing number of critics say that no nuclear weapon would be a credible deterrent in any counter-terrorist operation British forces will be engaged in for the foreseeable future.
  • (10) And despite the initial scepticism, now completely gone says Henry, DCA's transparency and accountability systems and mechanisms are now "some of the most convincing tools to fundraising, credibility and brand recognition" and is used by face-to-face fundraisers, volunteers and PR to promote the organisation.
  • (11) Providing an upfront, unconditional component to debt relief is critical to provide a strong and credible signal to markets about the commitment of official creditors to ensuring debt sustainability, which in itself could contribute to lowering market financing costs.
  • (12) The actor and his fee have become the news story, and there's no credible reason to believe that Downey is a HTC fan.
  • (13) Conservatives are driving the reform debate in Europe and only David Cameron has a credible plan to deliver real change.
  • (14) In 2008, the same policy was rejected when it was found to have no credible evidence ...
  • (15) However, a no show from the leader of the Commonwealth's biggest member would be a huge blow to the credibility of the organisation.
  • (16) Their credibility will be destroyed,” predicts one former Labour cabinet minister.
  • (17) The New Economics Foundation guessed that it could be anywhere between 3.4 and 8.3p ; 8.3 pence was so far beyond what anyone else forecast that I treated it as scarcely credible.
  • (18) The most basic mark of credibility for a Democratic campaign is whether it has bought access to the voter file as administered through NGP VAN , the Democratic party’s quasi-official vendor for voting information.
  • (19) In order to maintain his credibility rating, an aide added that the chancellor had not seen the programmes in which the allegedly racist remarks were made, though he has watched Big Brother in the past.
  • (20) But you know, my view is that … if you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rigorous diplomatic effort, that, in fact you can strike a deal."

Credulity


Definition:

  • (n.) Readiness of belief; a disposition to believe on slight evidence.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When President Obama stands up and says - as he did when he addressed the nation in February 2011 about Libya - that "the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people", it should trigger nothing but a scornful fit of laughter, not credulous support (by the way, not that anyone much cares any more, but here's what is happening after the Grand Success of the Libya Intervention: "Tribal and historical loyalties still run deep in Libya, which is struggling to maintain central government control in a country where armed militia wield real power and meaningful systems of law and justice are lacking after the crumbling of Gaddafi's eccentric personal rule").
  • (2) With much of the work supposed to be completed by December, it is stretching credulity to believe that much more than token consultations with patient groups can take place.
  • (3) This leads to the paradoxical result that some of our most famous and successful journalists are also the profession's most credulous sycophants.
  • (4) When 11,000 jobs and a lot of pensions are at risk over the collapse of the ailing store group from which he extracted £586 m, let’s not waste any more time on King Phil (I’ve informally stripped him of his knighthood), his hurt feelings or embarrassingly vulgar yachts, except to say that – yet again – that Tony Blair was a credulous sucker for a rich man with tax-shy habits.
  • (5) It doesn't exactly stretch credulity, however, to recognize that banks provide bonuses to the best producers – whether they produce derivatives, mortgages or foreclosures.
  • (6) Given the inertia on even the most modest legislative response to the mass murder of schoolchildren, those still credulous enough to believe that our governance is representative of popular will are either Barnum-sized suckers, or worse, tacit participants in tragedies soon to come.
  • (7) Credulous voters will agree and feel placated, but in actuality, such measures will make little if any difference.
  • (8) The Crown Prosecution Service should not be so credulous in future.” But the CPS expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the trial.
  • (9) I think he’s a dangerous manchild with an army of credulous misogynists at his disposal.
  • (10) Pretending that the government's current forecasts and plans are certain and reliable, when the ones made only three years ago turned out to be anything but, stretches credulity.
  • (11) What we see is not meritocracy at work at all, but a wealth grab by a nepotistic executive class that sets its own salaries, tests credulity with its ridiculous demands, and discovers that credulity is an amenable customer.
  • (12) The boy insists he is not among the stone-throwers, an assertion that stretches credulity.
  • (13) It strains credulity to accept that a secretary of state who handles all her communications on a home-brewed server never passed classified information,” Fiorina said.
  • (14) Hague's campaign included parading Kaminski before the Jewish Chronicle and the more credulous blogger Iain Dale at the party conference: Dale's interview is reprinted across five pages in Total Politics , of which Lord Ashcroft owns 25%.
  • (15) The pirate's credulity regarding the US authorities' bogus ransom negotiations may make for a happy ending, but it's also the moment when America's superpower seems almost tragically all-consuming.
  • (16) Kiev's police chief later claimed that he ordered the assault, but that strains credulity.
  • (17) That suggestion, which always appeared unsatisfactory, now stretches the bounds of credulity.
  • (18) Equally credulous were those who, on the Monday evening, circulated reports that rioters had broken into London Zoo – thanks largely to a single, poorly-lit picture of what appears to be a tiger on a stairwell , with the irresistible subject line: "Oh my god – reports of tigers roaming around Primrose Hill."
  • (19) But the manipulation does not just tell us how sly operators view the credulous masses, but how they see themselves.
  • (20) Ghosts are not phantoms floating on the periphery of village life, the concern only of children and the credulous.