Plausible means seeming reasonable or likely to be true, even if you're not completely sure. A plausible explanation is one that makes sense and could easily be correct. If you arrive late to school and tell your teacher that traffic was unusually heavy, that's a plausible excuse because it's the kind of thing that really does happen.

The word describes something that sounds convincing without necessarily being proven. A scientist might propose a plausible theory about why dinosaurs went extinct. Your friend might offer a plausible reason for why they forgot your birthday. In mystery stories, detectives consider every plausible suspect, meaning anyone who reasonably could have done something wrong.

Something plausible fits with what you already know about how the world works. If someone claimed they saw a dog riding a skateboard, that's plausible because dogs can be trained to balance on moving objects. If they claimed the dog was driving a car, that's not plausible because dogs can't operate vehicles.

Be careful, though: plausible doesn't mean true. Con artists succeed by telling plausible lies. A story can sound perfectly plausible but turn out to be completely wrong. That's why detectives, scientists, and careful thinkers don't stop at plausible explanations. They keep investigating until they find proof.