| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| confirm |
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| SYLLABICATION: | con·firm |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  k n-fûrm |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: con·firmed, con·firm·ing, con·firms
1. To support or establish the certainty or validity of; verify. 2. To make firmer; strengthen: Working on the campaign confirmed her intention to go into politics. 3. To make valid or binding by a formal or legal act; ratify. 4. To administer the religious rite of confirmation to. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English confirmen, from Old French confermer, from Latin c nfirm re : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + firmre, to strengthen (from firmus, strong; see dher- in Appendix I). | | OTHER FORMS: | con·firm a·bili·ty —NOUN
con·firma·ble —ADJECTIVE
con·firma·tory (-fûrm-tôr , -tr) —ADJECTIVE
con·firmer —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | confirm, corroborate, substantiate, authenticate, validate, verify These verbs mean to affirm the truth, accuracy, or genuineness of something. Confirm implies removal of all doubt: “We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them” (Claude Bernard). Corroborate refers to supporting something by means of strengthening evidence: The witness is expected to corroborate the plaintiff's testimony. To substantiate is to establish by presenting substantial or tangible evidence: “one of the most fully substantiated of historical facts” (James Harvey Robinson). Authenticate implies the establishment of genuineness of something by the testimony of an expert: Never purchase an antique before it has been authenticated. Validate refers to establishing the validity of something, such as a theory, claim, or judgment: The divorce validated my parents' original objection to the marriage. Verify implies proving by comparison with an original or with established fact: The bank refused to cash the check until the signature was verified.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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