validate
Americanverb (used with object)
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validates,
present (3rd person singular)
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validated,
past participle, past
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validating
present participle
-
to make valid; substantiate; confirm.
Time validated our suspicions.
- Synonyms:
- prove, verify, authenticate
- Antonyms:
- disprove
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to give legal force to; legalize.
-
to give official sanction, confirmation, or approval to, as elected officials, election procedures, documents, etc..
to validate a passport.
verb
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to confirm or corroborate
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to give legal force or official confirmation to; declare legally valid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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validationnoun
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validatornoun
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revalidateverb (used with object)
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unvalidatedadjective
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unvalidatingadjective
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validatoryadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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validatesimple
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validatessimple
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have validatedperfect
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has validatedperfect
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am validatingprogressive
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are validatingprogressive
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is validatingprogressive
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have been validatingperfect progressive
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has been validatingperfect progressive
Past
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validatedsimple
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had validatedperfect
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was validatingprogressive
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were validatingprogressive
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had been validatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of validate
First recorded in 1640–50; from Medieval Latin validātus (past participle of validāre “to make valid”), equivalent to valid- ( see valid) + -ātus past participle suffix ( see -ate 1)
Explanation
To validate is to prove that something is based on truth or fact, or is acceptable. It can also mean to make something, like a contract, legal. You may need someone to validate your feelings, which means that you want to hear, “No, you’re not crazy. It’s acceptable to be angry about that.” Or you may need someone to validate your parking ticket — which means you have to prove that you bought something, so you can get parking for free. Whatever it is you are seeking to validate needs the added support or action from someone else to make it valid.
Vocabulary lists containing validate
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 2
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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The ACT: The Language of the Test, List 3
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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:
“I don’t necessarily need a 100-yard game to validate what I can do on the field,” said Adams, who is in his second season with the Rams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Her work allowed the team to validate the August 24 date attributed to Pliny the Younger to within two months.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
This year Nvidia has started using AI agents to help build virtual environments to train robots and validate whether the solutions from training work or not.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“To validate these projections, tech companies will need to bring in unprecedented amounts of new revenue,” Berezin wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
“Okay, before I go on, please note: what I’m about to say in no way diminishes what we’ve talked about in the past, nor does it validate that ‘just a phase’ thing I mentioned earlier.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
"It was built upon foundational basic research at the Salk Institute, validates those preclinical findings in patients, and provides a road map for future studies that could someday establish a new treatment standard."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026
“We agree the win validates the appropriateness of the adjuvant setting for a vaccine,” Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch wrote in a note on Thursday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
For residents and community groups, the report validates what they’ve been experiencing firsthand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
"This important certification validates the rigor of our airplane's design and recognizes the determination and resilience of our 737 MAX development team," said Stephanie Pope, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
If you have a heterogeneous class make up of many different ethnicities, abilities, races, providing activities validates who they are as people, and sends a message that their voices are valued.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The FAI governing body, holding its 120th general conference in Lausanne from Wednesday to Friday, validated the record attempt after verifying the flight data.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
"Language is incredibly important and the words we choose can show recognition and make people feel validated and seen."
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
So far, users have submitted over 350,000 observations, about half of which have been validated and paid for.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
The guidelines recommend using validated risk scoring tools that take kidney function into account.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
Now, just like that, they were his “work,” validated and stolen in one fell swoop.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
During the pandemic, when Wolf quit her 9-to-5 job and had the opportunity to focus on music, she began releasing songs regularly online to a slow and validating growth, selling out her first postpandemic concert.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
A messy legal battle ensued, and earlier this month the Missouri Supreme Court sided with the petitioners, finding Hoskins in contempt while validating the legality of the referendum petition.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"It is really validating and it raises your self-esteem a little bit, it means a lot."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
“These conversations consistently help,” he told me, “by either validating a decision I’m leaning toward or giving me a completely fresh perspective.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
In any case, despite the anti- climactic results, the test results were interpreted by the AEC as validating Livermore’s role as the developer of “new ideas” in thermonuclear technology.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
