seeing is believing

seeing is believing

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Proverb

seeing is believing

1. (idiomatic) You need to see something to believe it; visible facts cannot be denied.
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:

     There's nothing like Matter of Fact; Seeing is Believing.

   • 1848, J. C. and A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth, second edition, page 497:

     Seeing is believing, says the proverb. Though, of all our senses, the eyes are the most easily deceived, we believe them in preference to any other evidence.

2. (idiomatic) I am skeptical about your claim.

   They said their product will be ready for shipment in two months and we could even "take that to the bank", but we've heard that before. Seeing is believing.

Translations

you need to see something to believe it

Arabic: please add this translation if you can South Levantine Arabic: الحكي مش متل الشوف‎ (il-ḥaki miš mitl il-šōf) Chinese: Mandarin: 百聞不如一見 (zh), 百闻不如一见 (zh) (bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn), 眼见为实 (zh) Dutch: eerst zien, dan geloven, zien is geloven Finnish: uskoo, ken näkee French: une image vaut mille mots (fr), (please verify) voir, c'est croire, il faut le voir pour le croire Georgian: ასჯერ გაგონილს ერთხელ ნანახი ჯობიაო (asǯer gagonils ertxel nanaxi ǯobiao) German: ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend Worte (de) Icelandic: sjón er sögu ríkari Irish: déanann fearann fianaise, déanann feiceáil fírinne Italian: vedere per credere Japanese: 百聞は一見に如かず (ja) (ひゃくぶんはいっけんにしかず, hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu) Korean: 백문불여일견(百聞不如一見) (ko) (baengmunburyeoilgyeon) Latin: videre est credere Persian: please add this translation if you can Portuguese: ver é crer Russian: лу́чше оди́н раз уви́деть, чем сто раз услы́шать (ru) (lúčše odín raz uvídetʹ, čem sto raz uslýšatʹ), уви́деть — э́то зна́чит пове́рить (uvídetʹ — éto znáčit povéritʹ), пока́ не уви́жу, не пове́рю (poká ne uvížu, ne povérju) Spanish: ver para creer Swedish: det tror jag när jag ser det Vietnamese: bách văn bất như nhất kiến (vi) (百聞不如一見 (vi))

show of skepticism about a claim

Dutch: eerst zien, dan geloven, zien is geloven Hungarian: hiszem, ha látom, majd meglátjuk, várjuk ki a végét