Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being gullible; unsuspecting credulity.

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

  • noun The quality of readily believing information, truthful or otherwise, usually to an absurd extent.

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

  • noun tendency to believe too readily and therefore to be easily deceived

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The current estimate of the sea-gull as an intellectual force is compressed into the word "gullibility" -- a verbal monument of contempt.

    Days Off And Other Digressions Henry Van Dyke 1892

  • Ah, you want male chauvinism, perhaps we should discuss the evolutionary pressure on women that selects for gullibility aka the “Dunham effect”, with its all too apparent implications for voting patterns. /g

    HCR: Pelosi tells the simple-minded American people not to worry our pretty little heads about it 2010

  • (1,4) Non-analytical thinking essentially means to me gullibility, which is more imaginative than people who over-analyze every situation.

    Serendip's Exchange Lauren McD 2010

  • A close friend of the family, McDonough recalled a gullibility that humanized Santo in a way that made him so appealing.

    chicagotribune.com - News 2010

  • He delivered himself of a Ratner moment, when asked if there was any known benefit to homeopathic remedies, beyond the placebo effect (otherwise known as gullibility).

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Still, as politicians know, the human need to believe - aka gullibility - is immense.

    IOL Technology 2008

  • The reward for their gullibility was a widening of the war (s), a continuing neglect of Constitutional principles, a failure to prosecute those who had lied us into one misadventure after another, a retreat from any single-payer "Medicare for All" healthcare reform, a watering down of climate change initiatives, a postponement of most legislation that would have brought some justice to gay/Lesbian citizens, and a sad abandonment of promises for transparency and open-ness in the Executive branch.

    You Get What you Vote For! 2009

  • But uninformed Americans haven't quite yet figured out the true source of their frustration – they themselves, how they have been voting, their characteristically poor choices across many decades, and their characteristic gullibility which is so valued by the corporate and political elite these sheep so blindly serve.

    Senator vows to block carry-on fee 2010

  • It's this kind of gullibility that gave us "Dubya".

    Hagel criticizes McCain over Iran comments 2008

  • Jason you wrote: I don't think "gullibility" was a factor.

    CNN.com 2010

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