Possibly vs Plausible - What's the difference?
possibly | plausible |
(modifying a clause or predicate)
(modifying a verb)
Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.
*
Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.
Using specious arguments or discourse. (rfv-sense)
(obsolete) Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
As an adverb possibly
is (modifying a clause or predicate).As an adjective plausible is
seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.possibly
English
Adverb
(en adverb)- Possibly , they will make gains in the midterm elections.
- It was possibly the costliest mistake in the organization's history.
- This rare and possibly unique specimen must be conserved.
- I'm much stronger than you, so you can't possibly win.
- I couldn't possibly be there on time.
- I couldn't possibly cheat on my wife.
- It seems unlikely, but, yes, they could possibly win even now.
- The police don't know him, and the information they have leads them to think he could possibly have murdered his wife.
Synonyms
* conceivably, maybe, perhaps, potentiallyAntonyms
* impossibly * inevitably * certainlyplausible
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- In short, the twin assumptions that syntactic rules are category-based, and that there are a highly restricted finite set of categories in any natural language (perhaps no more than a dozen major categories), together with the assumption that the child either knows'' (innately) or ''learns (by experience) that all rules are structure-dependent ( =category-based), provide a highly plausible model of language acquisition, in which languages become learnable in a relatively short, finite period of time (a few years).
- a plausible''' pretext; '''plausible''' manners; a '''plausible delusion
- a plausible speaker
- (Bishop Hacket)