Word.ws English Dictionary

plausible deniability

plausible deniability noun: the organization of clandestine activity in such a way that knowledge of its existence may be denied by those in authority.

Noun

plausible deniability (usually uncountable, plural plausible deniabilities)

  1. (usually) The organization of clandestine activity in such a way that knowledge of its existence may be denied by those in authority.
    • Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North may have added a memorable phrase to the lexicon of political obfuscation at the Iran-contra hearings when he referred to his concern for "plausible deniability" as he carried out his covert activities.1987 July 16, Meyer Rangell, “Letters: Deniable Plausibility?”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Jun 2015
    • Americans would stand out in the Laotian jungle, and Washington needed to retain plausible deniability. CIA officials demanded that Laotians on their payroll carry out the mission.2001 June 24, Douglas C. Waller, “The Americans Left Behind”, in Time, retrieved 08 Jun 2015

Forms of plausible deniability

pluralplausible deniabilities

Origin of plausible deniability

Originally CIA jargon from the 1950s, and popularized during the Watergate scandal (1970s).

Questions about plausible deniability

What does plausible deniability mean?
Plausible deniability means the organization of clandestine activity in such a way that knowledge of its existence may be denied by those in authority.
What part of speech is plausible deniability?
Plausible deniability is a noun.
What is the plural of plausible deniability?
The plural of plausible deniability is plausible deniabilities.

Words near plausible deniability in the dictionary

  1. plausable
  2. plausibilities
  3. plausibility
  4. plausible
  5. plausible deniabilities
  6. plausible deniability
  7. plausible denial
  8. plausible denials
  9. plausibleness
  10. plausibly
  11. plausibly denied

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plausible deniability (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “plausible deniability.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plausible_deniability. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.