asseverate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing asseverate
The Turn of the Screw
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List 9
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List 9
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
If the Cardinal argued the case, the Prince would asseverate, after his manner, and some sort of result was sure to follow.
From Saracinesca by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
And I hereby do fully and freely declare and asseverate, that the Woods did not tremble to a kiss, and that the lovers did.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
All this flashed through her mind with lightning rapidity while Mr. Dehnicke continued to asseverate his friendship for Walter, and look at her with his round eyes in undesirous adoration.
From The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann
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
Referring to the oil industry in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, Comrade Orakhelashvili asseverated that: Figures from Egypt on the general election just held show that ex-Premier Zaghlul Pasha just missed winning a remarkable victory.
From Time Magazine Archive
Once again," he asseverated, "the Supreme Court has survived a real crisis in its existence.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I am proud," Mr. Seicht asseverated, "of the acquaintance of the wealthiest proprietor of the country."
From The Progressionists, and Angela. by Conrad von Bolanden
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
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
Could we see as cogent a motive for asseverating his guilt as we find for his insisting upon his innocence, we should lend as much credence to the one as to the other.
From The Darrow Enigma by Melvin Linwood Severy
"Yes, you did," cry I, passionately, asseverating what I have so lately and passionately denied.
From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton
Into every room they looked, the old woman asseverating denials that it was of no use, they might see for themselves, that no one had been there for years past.
From Love and Life An Old Story in Eighteenth Century Costume by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
