credibly

comparative more credibly · superlative most credibly

1. In a credible manner; believably.

   He was in a position to commit to a credibly conservative monetary policy.

   2 more examples

   A suitor can credibly signal his love for a woman by offering her an expensive and extravagant gift.

   Bill Clinton was elected on an untenable premise: that it is the job of the President to manage the economy. Yes, that is what we have come to expect of Presidents; but this expectation, the author argues, is punishingly at variance with anything any President can credibly deliver[.]

   1993 July 28, Charles R. Morris, “It's Not the Economy, Stupid”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 Nov 2025

2. Used to report the speaker's assessment of the credibility of a reported statement

   He [Mayor Koch] says he better understands the limits of government; less credibly, he says he has mellowed.

   1989, The New York Times Magazine, page 38

   4 more examples

   His deep-set eyes and expression of general despair lend him a look of utter dissolution—very credibly, he is dying from sexual desire.

   1997, Vanity Fair, volume 60, page 95

   Perhaps less credibly she assumes that, as a necessary consequence of this move from the public space of the theatre to the private space of the closet, 'the emphasis shifted to subjective interpretation'

   2003, Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Survey, number 51, page 132

   In his eyes, if he allowed things to continue as before, he would be little better than a male prostitute. All too credibly, he could imagine himself aging into the superannuated gigolo of Juvenal's satire.

   2009, Anthony Everitt, Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, page 289

   Perhaps, and more credibly, he meant that, had he been at the department, he would have ensured that the president expressly cleared that instruction.

   2013, Frank W. Brecher, American Diplomacy and the Israeli War of Independence, page 171