Validated

How to spell validated

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce validated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does validated mean?

1. verbConfirmed or proved that something is sound, accurate, or legally acceptable.
2. adjectiveHaving been confirmed, ratified, or established as sound or acceptable.

Validated in a sentence

• verb

  The accountant validated every figure before the report was filed.

• adjective

  Only a validated certificate will be accepted at the border.

• verb

  The parking attendant validated my ticket at the front desk.

• adjective

  The clinic relies on a validated questionnaire to assess patients.

Where does validated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin adjective validus, which meant 'strong, robust, or effective', itself derived from the verb valere, 'to be strong or to be worth'. The same valere root gives us a whole family of English words including 'value', 'valour', 'prevail', and even the farewell 'valediction', all carrying the underlying idea of strength or worth. By the early seventeenth century English had 'valid' for something legally or logically sound, and the verb 'validate' followed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, meaning to make or confirm as valid. The form 'validated' is simply the past tense and past participle, used when something has been confirmed, ratified, or shown to be sound. The spelling stays close to its Latin source, and the trap for writers is the unstressed middle vowel: it is spelled 'vali-DA-ted', with an 'i' where the schwa sound gives no clue.

How the word is built

• valid- (from Latin validus: strong, effective)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)