BALDICK, Chris. Oxford Dictionary of literary terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Verisimilitude
The semblance of truth or reality in literary works or the literary principle that requires a consistent illusion of truth to life. the term covers both the exclusion of improbabilities in non-realistic works. As a critical principle, it originates in Aristotle’s concept of mimesis or imitation of nature. It was involved by French critics (as vraisemblance) to enforce the dramatic unities in the 17th and 18th centuries, on the grounds that changes of scene or time would break the illusion of truth to life for the audience.