![\"\"](\"\/\/manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2012\/04\/530290-3640800741188-1309407890-33499152-478165847-n.jpeg\" "\\"530290_3640800741188_1309407890_33499152_478165847_n\\"")
<\/p>\nThis hilarious graphic has been making the rounds on Facebook:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Credible Hulk! This, of course, is a play on the Incredible Hulk<\/a>. But what does incredible<\/em> really mean?<\/p>\n Today, we often use incredible<\/em> to mean “amazing, awesome!” However, the actual meaning of incredible<\/em> is not believable.<\/em> For instance:<\/p>\n No one would have questioned the employee’s sick day if he hadn’t told such _________ story about an exotic illness that sent him to the hospital near-death at 8:30 a.m., and yet was cured completely by evening.<\/p>\n Select two<\/span> answers.<\/p>\n an incredible a fabulous an incredulous a verisimilar a gullible a chintzy<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n (Note: When you see six answer choices and square checkboxes, that’s a clue that this is a GRE Sentence Equivalence problem, to which there will always be two correct answers.)<\/p>\n Of course, one of the answers to this question is incredible<\/em>. But what about the other one?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s not incredulous<\/em>, even though the two words share two roots.<\/p>\n The root “cred” (believe) occurs in many words, such as credit<\/em> (when someone gives you a credit card, it’s because they believe<\/em> you’ll pay them back), discredit, creed,<\/em> and credo<\/em>. However, incredible<\/em> and incredulous<\/em> are not the same.<\/p>\n Compare the following:<\/p>\n Credible<\/a> – capable of being believed; believable<\/p>\n Incredible<\/a> – so extraordinary as to seem impossible; not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable<\/p>\n Credulous<\/a> – willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullible.<\/p>\n