Word.ws English Dictionary

testify

Syllables: tes·ti·fy/ˈtɛstɪfaɪ/

testify verb: to make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.

Verb

testify (third-person singular simple present testifies, present participle testifying, simple past and past participle testified)

  1. (ambitransitive) To make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.
    • One witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 35:30
    • Michael Jackson probably died after he rapidly injected himself with a dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol on top of a large dose of sedatives he swallowed when Dr. Conrad Murray was away, the defense’s propofol expert testified Friday.2011 October 28, Alan Duke, “Michael Jackson gave himself fatal overdose, expert says”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Dec 2016
  2. (ambitransitive) To make a statement based on personal knowledge or faith.
    • We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:11
    • [T]he pleaſures of ſenſe have no reliſh vvhere thou [Jesus] irradiateſt and teſtifieſt vvith our conſcience, that vve are the children of God, and have done thy vvill ſincerely, […]1733, Tho[mas] Allen, “Jesus Christ’s Sixth Royal Embassy; or Word to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia”, in The Christian’s Sure Guide to Eternal Glory: Or, Living Oracles Most Comfortable...
  3. (ambitransitive) To be evidence of.
    • Paradoxically, the sharp and unambiguous formulas in which Lenin called for the use of terror and denied the possibility of democracy and freedom testified to the fact that freedom had not yet been completely eradicated.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
    • "Iberian-Sardinian" substrate features have been posited time and time again. These have usually been explained as testifying to a migration from the Iberian Peninsula to Sardinia in prehistoric times.2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 15

testify meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

testify in Tamil

சான்று கூறு

testify in Urdu

گواہی دینا, شہادت دینا

testify in Bengali

সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া, প্রমাণ করা

testify in Malayalam

സാക്ഷ്യപ്പെടുത്തുക, തെളിവുകൊടുക്കുക, സാക്ഷിപറയുക
More languagesFewer languages
testify in Kannada
ಎತ್ತಿಹಿಡಿ, ಕಂಡುದನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಸು, ಸಾಕ್ಷ್ಯ ನೀಡು, ಸತ್ಯವೆಂದು ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಮಾಡಿ ಹೇಳು
testify in Tagalog
manaksi
testify in Arabic
شَهِدَ šahida
testify in Persian
شهادت دادن

Examples of testify in a sentence

  • The state wants to bring in ten blood-spatter experts to testify. Your Honor, that is cumulative testimony.
  • He submitted his affidavit rather than appearing to testify in court.
  • The crime lord dispatched his favorite hatchet man to make sure the witness would not testify.

All 40 example sentences with testify

Synonyms of testify

Forms of testify

third-person singular presenttestifies
present participletestifying
past participletestified
pasttestified
second-person singular present (archaic)testifiest
second-person singular past (archaic)testifiedst
third-person singular present (archaic)testifieth

Past tense of testify: testified

Origin of testify

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English testifien, borrowed from Old French testifier, from Latin testificārī (“to bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”) + facere (“to make”). See -fy.

Words formed from testify

Questions about testify

What does testify mean?
Testify means to make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.
What is testify in Tamil?
Testify in Tamil is சான்று கூறு. See Testify meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is testify?
Testify is a verb.
How do you pronounce testify?
Testify is pronounced /ˈtɛstɪfaɪ/.
What is the past tense of testify?
The past tense of testify is testified.

Words near testify in the dictionary

  1. testifier
  2. testifiers
  3. testifies
  4. testifiest
  5. testifieth
  6. testify
  7. testifying
  8. testilie
  9. testilied
  10. testilies
  11. testily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: testify (page history and authors); testify (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); testify (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); testify (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); testify (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); testify (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-testify.wav.

Cite this entry: “testify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/testify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.