Assertion

How to spell assertion

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce assertion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does assertion mean?

1. nounA confident and forceful statement that something is true, often made without supporting proof.

Assertion in a sentence

• The auditor questioned every assertion in the financial report.

• Her bold assertion that the deadline could be met surprised the team.

Where does assertion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin assertio, meaning a claim or a formal declaration. That noun grew from the verb asserere, formed from ad- meaning 'to' or 'toward' and serere meaning 'to join, bind, or link together'. In Roman law the verb originally had a strikingly concrete sense: to lay a hand on a person and so 'bind' them as either slave or free, in effect declaring their legal status. From that act of formally claiming something, the idea broadened into making any confident statement of fact. English took the word in the early 1500s, by way of French and directly from Latin, and the same serere root survives in 'series' and 'insert', where the notion of joining things in a line still shows through.

How the word is built

• as- (from ad-: toward)
• sert (from serere: to join, bind)
• -ion (noun suffix)