Verification

How to spell verification

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce verification

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does verification mean?

1. nounThe act of checking or proving that something is true, accurate, or genuine.

Verification in a sentence

• The bank requires verification of your identity before opening the account.

• Each invoice goes through a quick verification against the original order.

Where does verification come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb verificare, meaning 'to make true' or 'to prove true', which was assembled from verus, meaning 'true', and facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. The same verus root lies behind the everyday words 'verity', 'verdict', and 'very', which once meant 'truly' rather than 'extremely'. Medieval Latin used verificare in legal and scholarly settings to describe the act of confirming that a statement matched the facts. English took the word in through Old French verification during the fifteenth century, keeping the noun form for the process of checking or proving that something is correct. The spelling trap is that single 'r' followed by 'ific': writers expect a more crowded cluster, but the word simply chains ver, then the soft 'fic' from facere, then the familiar '-ation' ending.

How the word is built

• ver- (from Latin verus: true)
• -fic- (from facere: to make)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)