witness

Syllables: wit·ness/ˈwɪt.nəs/UK/ˈwɪt.nɪs/

witness noun: attestation of a fact or event; testimony.

Noun (1)

witness (countable and uncountable, plural witnesses)

(uncountable) Attestation of a fact or event; testimony.
- She can bear witness, since she was there at the time.
- May we, with the warrant of womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any further revenge?c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
(countable) One who sees or has personal knowledge of something.
- As a witness to the event, I can confirm that he really said that.
- […]thyself art witness— I am betrothed.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
(countable) Someone called to give evidence in a court.
- The witness for the prosecution did not seem very credible.
- From the evidence of witnesses and of the recorded passing times, including the time at which the circuit breakers were tripped when the wires were brought down, the train was travelling at a speed of not less than 70 m.p.h.1961 November, “Talking of Trains: Derailment near Holmes Chapel”, in Trains Illustrated, page 652
(countable) One who is called upon to witness an event or action, such as a wedding or the signing of a document.
- The bridesmaid and best man at a wedding typically serve as the witnesses.
(countable) Something that serves as evidence; a sign or token.
- Laban said to Jacob, […] This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:51-52
A particular version of a text (seen as providing testimony of archetype or other earlier version)
- Yet there are extremely few, if any, cases of preserved autographs, and textual witnesses (manuscripts) rather distant in time from the creation of the texts are the norm.2020, Alessandro Bausi, “7.5 Philological practices: Ethiopic”, in Philipp Roelli, editor, Handbook of Stemmatology: History, Methodology, Digital Approaches, De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC...
(countable) An additional database server instance used in failover scenarios to decide whether the mirror should take over.
- Automatic failover requires a witness, either a file share or a SQL Server witness (SQL Server Express may be used as a witness).2016, Vlad Catrinescu, Trevor Seward, Deploying SharePoint 2016 (page 350)

Verb

witness (third-person singular simple present witnesses, present participle witnessing, simple past and past participle witnessed)

(transitive) To furnish proof of, to show.
- This certificate witnesses his presence on that day.
- round he throws his baleful eyes / That witness'd huge affliction and dismay1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
(transitive) To take as evidence.
- Depression often goes undetected until it is too late . Witness the recent White House suicide.1993, Vicki M. Pino, “Viewpoints from our Readers after "Aprongate": Lighten up”, in Atlanta Journal Constitution
(transitive) To see or gain knowledge of through experience.
- He witnessed the accident.
- This is but a faint sketch of the incalculable calamities and horrors we must expect, should we be so unfortunate as ever to witness the triumph of modern infidelity1801, Robert Hall, On Modern Infidelity
(intransitive) To present personal religious testimony; to preach at (someone) or on behalf of.
- Instead, Niebuhr's God was the God witnessed to in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, the Bible of the Christian world.1998, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, volume 6, "Niebuhr, Reinhold", page 842
To see the execution of (a legal instrument), and subscribe it for the purpose of establishing its authenticity.
- to witness a bond or a deed

Noun (2) capitalized: Witness

Witness (plural Witnesses)

A Jehovah's Witness.

witness meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

witness in Hindi

attestation of a fact or event: गवाही gavāhī, साक्ष्य sākṣya
one who has a personal knowledge of something: गवाह gavāh, साक्षी sākṣī
someone called to give evidence in a court: गवाह gavāh, साक्षी sākṣī, प्रत्यक्षदर्शी pratyakṣadarśī
something that serves as evidence: साक्ष्य sākṣya

witness in Marathi

one who has a personal knowledge of something: साक्षीदार sākṣīdār

witness in Urdu

one who has a personal knowledge of something: گواہ gavāh, شاہد śāhid
someone called to give evidence in a court: گواہ gavāh, شاہد śāhid

More languagesFewer languages

witness in Bengali: সাক্ষী śakkhi
witness in Telugu: సాక్షి sākṣi
witness in Malayalam: സാക്ഷി sākṣi
witness in Kannada: ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ, ಸಂಗತಿ ತಿಳಿಸುವವನು, ನೋಟಕ, ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕ
witness in Punjabi: ਸ਼ਾਹਦ śāhad, ਗਵਾਹ gavāh, ਸਾਖੀ sākhī
witness in Gujarati: સાક્ષી sākṣī
witness in Odia: ସାକ୍ଷୀ
witness in Sanskrit: साक्षिन् sākṣin, ज्ञातृ jñātṛ́
witness in Assamese: সাখী xakhi
witness in Nepali: साक्षी
witness in Pashto: شاهد šāhéd, ګواه gawãh
witness in Arabic: شَهَادَة šahāda, شَاهِد šāhid, شَاهِدَة šāhida, شَهِيد šahīd
witness in Malay: saksi
witness in Indonesian: saksi
witness in Persian: گواهی gavāhī, شاهد šâhed, گواه govâh
witness in Thai: พยาน pá-yaan, สักขี sàk-kǐi, ผู้เห็นเหตุการณ์ pûu-hěn-hèet-gaan
witness in Vietnamese: nhân chứng
witness in Myanmar: သက်သေ sakse

Examples of witness in a sentence

We have as much witness from heaven as we need.1959, Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of holy scripture, volume 6:
Nor do the formation and articulation of such knowledge themselves bear much witness to Geist.2002, Charles E. Scott, The Lives of Things, page 125:
Fleeing is giving witness, and those that plead against it are loath to give so much witness2008, Jeremiah Burroughs, C. Matthew McMahon, Therese B. McMahon, The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil Times, page 100:
Ob. 16 can show that every nation will get at least this much witness2014, James Tarter, God's Word to the United States: The Book of Obadiah:

All 40 example sentences with witness

Synonyms of witness

certify

Forms of witness

Noun
plural	witnesses
plural	Witnesses
alternative form (obsolete)	witnesse
alternative form (obsolete)	witneße
Verb
third-person singular present	witnesses
present participle	witnessing
past participle	witnessed
past	witnessed

Past tense of witness: witnessed

Plural of witness: witnesses

Origin of witness

From Middle English witnesse, from Old English ġewitnes, equivalent to wit + -ness. Cognate with Middle Dutch wetenisse (“witness, testimony”), Old High German gewiznessi (“testimony”), Icelandic vitni (“witness”).

Words formed from witness

Phrases with witness

Words that rhyme with witness

Questions about witness

What does witness mean?: Witness means attestation of a fact or event; testimony.
What is witness in Hindi?: Witness in Hindi is गवाही (gavāhī), साक्ष्य (sākṣya), गवाह (gavāh). See Witness meaning in Hindi.
How do you use witness in a sentence?: We have as much witness from heaven as we need.
What part of speech is witness?: Witness can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce witness?: Witness is pronounced /ˈwɪt.nɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of witness?: The plural of witness is witnesses.

Words near witness in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: witness (page history and authors); Witness (page history and authors); witness (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); witness (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਗਵਾਹ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); સાક્ષી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); witness (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ज्ञातृ (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); সাখী (Assamese) (page history and authors); witness (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-witness.ogg, en-au-witness.ogg.

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