Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible.
- adjective Persuasive or ingratiating, especially in an effort to deceive.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Deserving applause or approval; meritorious; praiseworthy; commendable.
- Seemingly worthy of acceptance or approval; apparently right, meritorious, or worthy of confidence; having a specious or superficial appearance of truth or trustworthiness: as, a plausible excuse; a plausible theory or doctrine.
- Fair-spoken and apparently worthy of confidence; using or presenting discourse or arguments that seem right and worthy of acceptance: as, a plausible person.
- Applauding; applausive.
- Synonyms Colorable, Specious, etc. See
ostensible .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
- adjective Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious
- adjective Using specious arguments or discourse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or
acceptable ;credible : a plausible excuse. - adjective Obtaining
approbation ; specificallypleasing ; apparentlyright ;specious . - adjective Using specious
arguments ordiscourse . - adjective obsolete Worthy of being
applauded ;praiseworthy ;commendable ;ready .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective apparently reasonable and valid, and truthful
- adjective given to or characterized by presenting specious arguments
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Ever since Ronald Reagan's henchmen coined the phrase "plausible deniability," that's become our national motto.
Ethan Casey: Terry Jones' America Is A Dangerous Place To Be Ethan Casey 2011
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Ever since Ronald Reagan's henchmen coined the phrase "plausible deniability," that's become our national motto.
Ethan Casey: Terry Jones' America Is A Dangerous Place To Be Ethan Casey 2011
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To the skeptic's ear, when the word "plausible" needs to be included, this is a warning sign that what is described may not, in fact, be so plausible.
Steven Newton: Unleash the Kraken! Creationism, Kookiness, and Alleged Censorship Steven Newton 2011
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To the skeptic's ear, when the word "plausible" needs to be included, this is a warning sign that what is described may not, in fact, be so plausible.
Steven Newton: Unleash the Kraken! Creationism, Kookiness, and Alleged Censorship Steven Newton 2011
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The Gang of Six relies on what it calls a "plausible baseline" of future tax rates, but that baseline does not assume a continuation of current tax policies.
The Gang of Six Play 2011
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To the skeptic's ear, when the word "plausible" needs to be included, this is a warning sign that what is described may not, in fact, be so plausible.
Steven Newton: Unleash the Kraken! Creationism, Kookiness, and Alleged Censorship Steven Newton 2011
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I think that if we have a situation where the Taliban comes into power in Afghanistan, it's going to be very difficult to deter them from somehow hosting Al Qaida elements, because they can very easily establish what you call plausible deniability.
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But the problem with coming flat out against it is that the Iraq war was what I call a plausible war.
Digital Dispatches 2007
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Just a short time ago, Capitol Hill Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said that they were investigating what they called a plausible explanation.
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If in the case of the CIA tapes, if congress does nothing because the evidence was destroyed and can not prove who did what just remember the term plausible deniability as it once again is being used to pull the wool over your eyes and make a fool of you, and if you do nothing to force them to prosecute everyone who had anything to do with the destruction of the tapes, and also prosecute the violations that occurred on the tapes, then you are a good man who does nothing but support evil.
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