credence

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Acceptance as true or valid; belief: synonym: belief.
• noun Credibility; plausibility.
• noun Recommendation; credentials.
• noun A small table or shelf for holding the bread, wine, and vessels of the Eucharist when they are not in use at the altar.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Belief; credit; reliance of the mind on evidence of facts derived from other sources than personal knowledge, as from the testimony of others.
• noun That which gives a claim to credit, belief, or confidence; credentials: now used only in the phrase letter of credence (a paper intended to commend the bearer to the confidence of a third person).
• noun Some act or process of testing the nature or character of food before serving it, as a precaution against poison, formerly practised in royal or noble households.
• noun In medieval times, a side-table or side-board on which the food was placed to be tasted before serving; hence, in later use, a cupboard or cabinet for the display of plate, etc.
• noun Eccles., in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, a small table, slab, or shelf against the wall of the sanctuary or chancel, near the epistle side of the altar (on the right of one facing it).
• To give credence to; believe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb obsolete To give credence to; to believe.
• noun Reliance of the mind on evidence of facts derived from other sources than personal knowledge; belief; credit; confidence.
• noun That which gives a claim to credit, belief, or confidence.
• noun (Eccl.) The small table by the side of the altar or communion table, on which the bread and wine are placed before being consecrated.
• noun A cupboard, sideboard, or cabinet, particularly one intended for the display of rich vessels or plate, and consisting chiefly of open shelves for that purpose.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Acceptance of a belief or claim as true, especially on the basis of evidence.
• noun rare Credential or supporting material for a person or claim.
• noun religion A small table or credenza used in certain Christian religious services.
• verb obsolete To give credence to; to believe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a kind of sideboard or buffet
• noun the mental attitude that something is believable and should be accepted as true