Verisimilitude is a perfect example of why it’s good to know Latin; the word comes directly from the Latin word “Verisimilitudo,” meaning probable or likely.  However, that’s a very obscure Latin word, and you would be much more likely to know that the root of “Verisimilitude” and “Verisimilitudo” comes from the Latin verb “Veritas,” meaning truth.  So if you don’t know the word but do have a basic level of Latin, you’d know right away that “Verisimilitude” has to do with “truth.”

If you were to say a book has a high degree of verisimilitude, then you would be saying that the book is very realistic and believable.   In this context, Star Wars has almost none verisimilitude, but Tom Sawyer has a ton.

In actuality, verisimilitude has more to do with how realistic you depict a script when acting it out.  For instance, standing inside a large wooden box and pretending it’s an elevator isn’t very realistic.  However, if you were to then attach a rope to that box and actually lower and raise it, then it would be realistic.