asseverate

American  

[uh-sev-uh-rayt] / əˈsɛv əˌreɪt /

verb (used with object)

asseverated, asseverating

1. to declare earnestly or solemnly; affirm positively; aver.

   Synonyms:

   maintain, state, assert

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asseverate British  

/ əˈsɛvəˌreɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to assert or declare emphatically or solemnly

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Other Word Forms

• asseveration
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of asseverate

First recorded in 1785–95; < Latin assevērātus “spoken in earnest” (past participle of assevērāre ), equivalent to as- as- + sevēr- ( see severe) + -ātus -ate ¹

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Explanation

To asseverate is to declare or affirm something with confidence and seriousness. When you asseverate, you're not just making a statement; you're saying it with such certainty that there's no room for confusion or doubt. The word comes from the Latin root that means "to affirm or maintain." When you asseverate, you speak with conviction. It's like planting your feet and saying, "This is how it is — no doubt about it!" A witness who gives their testimony in the courtroom may asseverate in order to let everyone know that they are telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

asseverate asseverated asseverating

Why merely say something, when they can declare, assert, expostulate, announce, or asseverate it?

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

—At this, the Boy suffered some Confusion, then to asseverate, My Tutor is deceased, Sir.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

It is so with matters of fact about which you asseverate so positively to us, as if they were matters of opinion.

From The Crimes of England by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

"She belongs to the machine," he would asseverate with warmth.

From Little Aliens by Myra Kelly

She did not asseverate any more, nor even say she was innocent.

From Sue, A Little Heroine by L. T. Meade

In the Daily Mail in 2007, Humphrys asseverated that “vandals” who use “grotesque abbreviations” in their text messages are “pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary”.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2016

Sometimes, Ms. Silveri asseverated, “ ‘she said’ is just the very best way to say that.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2015

Le Temps asseverated that there was a middle course between the guillotine and acquittal—ten or fifteen years in prison.

From Time Magazine Archive

"There still is in this country," he asseverated, "too great grief, too many mourners, too many wounded men for us to tolerate that."

From Time Magazine Archive

"I'm going to crank the engines and send you home," he asseverated.

From The King of Arcadia by Francis Lynde

"Don't be alarmed, don't be alarmed; I'm not mad, by God, I'm not mad," the captain kept asseverating excitedly.

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

So off they went in a body to the manager and demanded his instant dismissal, loudly asseverating that they would no longer eat, drink, or work in company with such a monster.

From Asbestos Its production and use, with some account of the asbestos mines of Canada by Robert H. Jones

Hereupon follows a lively fire of argument between Bobby and his sister; she protesting that she will not espouse a bishop, and he asseverating that she shall.

From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton

Now they have uprisen, and, asseverating that classical education is a pricked bubble, ask boldly for expensive apparatus and a larger tract of space in the time-table.

From The Lighter Side of School Life by Ian Hay

So Ferondo returned to his hamlet, where all that saw him fleeing, as folk are wont to flee from spectacles of horror, he called them back, asseverating that he was risen from the tomb.

From The Decameron, Volume I by J. M. (James Macmullen) Rigg

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Related Words

• allege
• attest
• aver
• avow
• declare
• promise

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