credulous

credulous, gullible both mean unduly trusting or confiding but they differ significantly in their implications as do their corresponding nouns credulity and gullibility.

Credulous and credulity stress a tendency to believe readily and uncritically whatever is proposed for belief without examination or investigation; typically they suggest inexperience, nai'veté, or careless habits of thought rather than inherent incapacity

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far from being unconscious of heredity . . . men were insanely credulous about it; they not only believed in the transmission of qualities and habits from generation to generation, but expected the son to begin mentally where the father left off— Shaw

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Hess, who was as deeply interested in psychic matters as Lanny, and far more credulous— Upton Sinclair

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we know from the satiric comments of Lucian and from the ingenuousness of Pliny the deep credulity of the average Roman— Buchan

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Gullible and gullibility, on the other hand, stress the idea of being duped; they suggest more the lack of necessary intelligence than the lack of skepticism, and connote the capacity for being made a fool of

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it was discovered that this man who had been raised to such a height by the credulity of the public was himself more gullible than any of his depositors— Conrad

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that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be duped into making "deals" at the expense of our Allies— Roosevelt

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monstrous was the gullibility of the people. How could an overcoat at twelve and sixpence be "good"— Bennett

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Analogous words: assenting, acquiescing or acquiescent, agreeing, subscribing (see corresponding verbs at ASSENT): believing, crediting (see corresponding nouns at BELIEF)

Antonyms: incredulous: skeptical

Contrasted words: uncertain, doubtful, suspicious, mistrustful (see corresponding nouns at UNCERTAINTY)