credence

From Middle English credence, from Old French credence, from Medieval Latin crēdentia (“belief, faith”), from Latin crēdēns, present active participle of crēdō (“loan, confide in, trust, believe”). Compare French croyance, French créance, Italian credenza, Portuguese crença, Romanian credință, Spanish creencia. Doublet of credenza.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiː.dəns/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdəns

credence (countable and uncountable, plural credences)

1. (uncountable) Acceptance of a belief or claim as true, especially on the basis of evidence.

   Based on the scientific data, I give credence to this hypothesis.

2. (rare, uncountable) Credential or supporting material for a person or claim.

   He presented us with a letter of credence.

3. (religion, countable) A small table or credenza used in certain Christian religious services.

   Synonym: (more common in Catholicism) credence table

4. (countable) A cupboard, sideboard, or cabinet, particularly one intended for the display of rich vessels or plate on open shelves.
5. (countable) A subjective probability estimate of a belief or claim.

   My credence in the proposition is around 90%.

• credential
• credibility

credence (third-person singular simple present credences, present participle credencing, simple past and past participle credenced)

1. (obsolete) To give credence to; to believe.

• Noah Webster (1828) “credence”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume I (A–I), New York, N.Y.: […] S. Converse; printed by Hezekiah Howe […], →OCLC.
• “credence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “credence”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

• credance, credans, credaunce, credens, credense, gredense

Borrowed from Old French credence, itself borrowed from Latin crēdentia. Doublet of creaunce.

• IPA^(key): /krɛːˈdɛns(ə)/, /ˈkrɛːdɛns(ə)/

credence (uncountable)

1. Faith, confidence; having belief.
2. Credence or credibility; the state of being reliable.
3. An official letter or text.
4. (rare) The tasting of food for poisons.

• English: credence

• “crēdence, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• credance

Borrowed from Latin credentia. Compare croiance, creance.

credence oblique singular, f (oblique plural credences, nominative singular credence, nominative plural credences)

1. faith; confidence

• → Middle English: credence, credance, credans, credaunce, credens, credense, gredense
  • English: credence