This is one that I have a lot of trouble saying. It's pronounced Ver-i-si-mil-i-tude. Kinda like Very Similar, which amazingly enough, is very close to it's meaning! Puns intended.
Verisimilitude means the semblance of reality or appearance of truth.
Websters: The quality or state of being verisimilar; the appearance of truth; probability; likelihood.
Douglas Harper: 1603, from Fr. verisimilitude (1549), from L. verisimilitudo "likeness to truth," from veri, genitive of verum, neut. of verus "true" (see very) + similis "like, similar" (see similar).
Or as the Encyclopedia Britannica would have it: the semblance of reality in dramatic or nondramatic fiction. The concept implies that either the action represented must be acceptable or convincing according to the audience's own experience or knowledge or, as in the presentation of science fiction or tales of the supernatural, the audience must be enticed into willingly suspending disbelief and accepting improbable actions as true within the framework of the narrative.
Why am I thinking of Verismilitude? Just wanted to expand your minds really. Plus I needed practice at saying it 'cause I often can't. And it's a fiction related term that crops up lots so I might drop it into conversation and would prefer that I be understood. Yes?
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