Crossword clues for verisimilitude
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Verisimilitude \Ver`i*si*mil"i*tude\, n. [L. verisimilitudo: cf. OF. verisimilitude. See Verisimilar.] The quality or state of being verisimilar; the appearance of truth; probability; likelihood.
Verisimilitude and opinion are an easy purchase; but
true knowledge is dear and difficult.
--Glanvill.
All that gives verisimilitude to a narrative.
--Sir. W.
Scott.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 The property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality, realism. 2 A statement which merely appears to be true.
WordNet
n. the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true
Wikipedia
Verisimilitude (or truthlikeness) is a philosophical concept that distinguishes between the relative and apparent (or seemingly so) truth and falsity of assertions and hypotheses. The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be closer to the truth than another false theory.
This problem was central to the philosophy of Karl Popper, largely because Popper was among the first to affirm that truth is the aim of scientific inquiry while acknowledging that most of the greatest scientific theories in the history of science are, strictly speaking, false. If this long string of purportedly false theories is to constitute progress with respect to the goal of truth, then it must be at least possible for one false theory to be closer to the truth than others.
Verisimilitude is the resemblance to reality, or the property of seeming true.
It may refer to:
- Verisimilitude (literature), the appearance of reality in literature and theater
- "Verisimilitude", a track by Thomas Newman from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (soundtrack)
- "Verisimilitude", a song on Grand Prix (album) by Teenage Fanclub
Verisimilitude is the "lifelikeness" or believability of a work of fiction. The word comes from meaning truth and similis meaning similar. Language philosopher Steve Neale distinguishes between two types: cultural verisimilitude, meaning plausibility of the fictional work within the cultural and/or historical context of the real world, outside of the work; and generic verisimilitude, meaning plausibility of a fictional work within the bounds of its own genre (so that, for example, a character's regularly singing about her feelings is a believable action within the fictional universe of a musical).
Usage examples of "verisimilitude".
He was able to induce hypnogogic hallucinations of remarkable verisimilitude, but they seemed no more real to him than so many line drawings.
The author's skill in portraying the humanity of characters who possess the power to destroy others with a thought adds a level of verisimilitude and immediacy rarely found in grand-scale fantasy.
Torn between fact and wish, between cynicism and idealism, Bernini tempers the all but caricatural verisimilitude of his faces with enormous sartorial abstractions, which are the embodiment, in stone or bronze, of the everlasting commonplaces of rhetoric - the heroism, the holiness, the sublimity to which mankind perpetually aspires, for the most part in vain.
High-def mask-entrepreneurs ready and willing to supply not just verisimilitude but aesthetic enhancement stronger chins, smaller eye-bags, air-brushed scars and wrinkles soon pushed the original mimetic-mask-entrepreneurs right out of the market.
Things appeared to proceed by logic, according to the laws of psychological verisimilitude and the deep inner coherences of metropolitan life, but in fact all was mystery.
The amorous contact imagined by the jealous man is the only way he can picture with verisimilitude the beloved’s connubiality, which, if doubtful, is at least possible, whereas his own is impossible.
This verisimilitude may be dramatic art backed {70} up by knowledge of public life.
But, of course, a Monson girl may have been chosen by the inventors to give verisimilitude to the substitution story, simply because the family was friendly with Turner, and the tale of the lewd high jinks with Symon added to make it seem more likely that old Lady Monson would lend herself to such a plot.
In the interest of verisimilitude, I usually carried with me a blank military commission, given me by my friend and ally the Secretary of War.
It would have to be one of the older clones, of course, for verisimilitude, but the plastic surgeons had done a remarkable preliminary job.
For the past year he had done his work, dated women, visited Petal and gone to the supermarket like an actor playing a part, pretending for the sake of verisimilitude that this was the real him, but knowing in his heart of hearts that it was not.
The pavilion came equipped with eleven temporaries who were to be their servants: soft-voiced unobtrusive catlike Chinese, done with perfect verisimilitude, straight black hair, glowing skin, epicanthic folds.
But lest those who are ignorant of the force of mathematical demonstrations and who are not accustomed to distinguish true reasons from mere verisimilitudes, should venture.