Assert

How to spell assert

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce assert

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does assert mean?

1. verbTo state or declare something firmly and confidently as true.
2. verbTo behave or speak in a confident, forceful way so that one's rights or views are recognised.

Assert in a sentence

• The lawyer continued to assert that her client was innocent.

• She learned to assert herself during tense salary negotiations.

• Critics assert that the new policy will raise costs for ordinary households.

• New managers often struggle to assert their authority over a larger team.

Where does assert come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb comes from the Latin asserere, formed from ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and serere, meaning 'to join, bind, or weave together'. In Roman law the word carried a surprisingly physical meaning: to assert someone was to lay a hand on a person in a formal ceremony, thereby declaring whether they were free or enslaved. From that gesture of laying claim grew the broader idea of declaring something to be true and standing firmly behind it. English borrowed the word in the early 1600s, keeping the sense of stating a position with confidence and the related sense of standing up for one's rights. The same serere root that gives the doubled inner letters also underlies words such as 'series' and 'insert', and remembering that 'ad-' assimilates to 'as-' explains why the spelling carries a double s.

How the word is built

• as- (from ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward')
• sert (from Latin serere, 'to join, bind, or put together')