Verify

How to spell verify

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce verify

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does verify mean?

1. verbTo check or confirm that something is true, accurate, or genuine.

Verify in a sentence

• The bank will verify your identity before approving the transfer.

• Please verify the figures in the spreadsheet against the original invoices.

Where does verify come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verificare, which was built from verus, meaning 'true', and facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. The literal sense was therefore 'to make true' or 'to prove true', and that idea of establishing the truth of something has stayed remarkably stable over the centuries. English took it up in the 1300s by way of Old French verifier, at first in legal and clerical contexts where statements and documents had to be confirmed as accurate. The same verus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'verity', 'veracity', and 'verdict', the last of which literally meant a 'true saying'. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel and the ending: it is -ify (the make-suffix), not the -efy that some related forms take, so picturing the 'true' root ver- helps anchor the spelling.

How the word is built

• ver- (from Latin verus: true)
• -ify (to make or render)