Incredible and incredulous look similar, but they do very different jobs in a sentence.
Incredible usually describes something so remarkable that it seems hard to believe. It often means astonishing or extraordinary. For example: She told an incredible story about surviving the storm. The story is the thing being described.
Incredulous describes a person or a person’s reaction when they cannot believe something. For example: He was incredulous when he heard the final score. Here, the person feels disbelief.
A simple way to remember the difference is this: incredible describes the thing, while incredulous describes the person reacting to the thing.
- Use incredible for something amazing, extraordinary, or difficult to believe.
- Use incredulous for someone who is skeptical, doubtful, or shocked into disbelief.
If you can replace the word with amazing, incredible probably fits. If you can replace it with skeptical or disbelieving, incredulous is likely the right choice.
