believe it or not

English

Adverb

believe it or not

1. (idiomatic) This may be surprising, but it's true.
   • 2001, Bryan A. Garner, Legal writing in plain English: a text with exercises, page 108:

     That depends on how long the sentence is. Believe it or not, there’s a canon of construction about provisos, and the test is anything but clear: …

   • 2003, Robert Bruce Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson, PC hardware in a nutshell, page 230:

     One common cause of “flipped bit” memory errors is, believe it or not, cosmic rays.

   • 2007, David Brown, Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music, page 165:

     The descending opening phrase of the aria is, believe it or not, Tatyana’s Fate theme from her Letter Scene, though now in a minor, not major key: …

Synonyms

• believe or not (less common)
• surprisingly

Translations

This may be surprising, but it's true

• Arabic: صدق أو لا تصدق
• Cebuano: motuo ka o dili
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 信不信由你

• Esperanto: kredu-ne-kredu
• Finnish: usko tai älä (singular), uskokaa tai älkää (polite or plural)
• French: croyez-le ou non (fr)
• German: sage und schreibe (de)
• Hungarian: ha hiszed, ha nem, hiszed vagy sem, akár hiszed, akár nem
• Indonesian: percaya atau tidak
• Irish: creid é nó ná creid
• Japanese: 信じようも信じまいと (しんじようもしんじまいと, shinjiyō mo shinjimai to), 信じられないかもしれませんが (しんじられないかもしれませんが, shinjirarenai ka mo shiremasen ga) (formal)
• Polish: wierz lub nie (singular conversation partner), uwierz lub nie (singular conversation partner), wierzcie lub nie (multiple conversation partners), uwierzcie lub nie (multiple conversation partners)
• Portuguese: acredite ou não
• Scottish Gaelic: creid sin no nach creid (informal and singular), creidibh sin no nach creid (formal and/or plural)
• Spanish: lo creas o no
• Swedish: tro det eller ej
• Tagalog: sa maniwala ka o sa hindi, maniwala ka man o hindi
• Telugu: నమ్ము నమ్మక పో (nammu nammaka pō)
• Turkish: ister inan, ister inanma

See also

• like it or not

Further reading

• “believe it or not”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “believe it or not” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “believe it or not”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “believe it or not” (US) / “believe it or not” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.