Testified

How to spell testified

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce testified

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does testified mean?

1. verbGave evidence or made a formal statement, especially under oath in a court of law.
2. verbServed as clear evidence or proof of something.

Testified in a sentence

• The accountant testified about the missing funds during the trial.

• The crowded waiting room testified to the clinic's growing reputation.

• Three neighbours testified that they had seen the car parked outside all night.

• Her steady hands testified to years of careful practice.

Where does testified come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb testificari, meaning 'to bear witness' or 'to give evidence', which was built from testis, meaning 'a witness', and facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. The noun testis literally pictured a person standing as a third party to an event, the one who could attest to what happened. English took the verb 'testify' in through Old French and Latin during the late 1300s, originally in religious and legal contexts where someone formally declared the truth of something. The same testis root sits behind a whole family of related words such as 'testimony', 'testament', 'attest', and 'protest', all sharing the idea of asserting or witnessing. The past form 'testified' simply adds the regular -ed ending, with the spelling trap being the -ify becoming -ified, where the y turns to i before the suffix.

How the word is built

• test- (from Latin testis: witness)
• -ify (to make/declare)
• -ed (past tense)