attest
Americanverb (used with object)
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attests,
present (3rd person singular)
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attested,
past participle, past
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attesting
present participle
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to bear witness to; certify; declare to be correct, true, or genuine; declare the truth of, in words or writing, especially to affirm in an official capacity.
to attest the truth of a statement.
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to give proof or evidence of; manifest.
His works attest his industry.
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Linguistics. to give evidence of the existence of (a word, phrase, usage, etc.), especially in writing: The dictionary attests this meaning as early as 1890.
The plural form is attested in ancient texts.
The dictionary attests this meaning as early as 1890.
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to put on oath.
verb (used without object)
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attests,
present (3rd person singular)
-
attested,
past participle, past
-
attesting
present participle
noun
verb
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(tr) to affirm the correctness or truth of
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to witness (an act, event, etc) or bear witness to (an act, event, etc) as by signature or oath
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(tr) to make evident; demonstrate
his life of luxury attests his wealth
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(tr) to provide evidence for
the marks in the ground attested the presence of a fossil
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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attestantnoun
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attestationnoun
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attestatornoun
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attesternoun
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attestornoun
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reattestverb (used with object)
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attestableadjective
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attestiveadjective
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unattestedadjective
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well-attestedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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attestsimple
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attestssimple
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have attestedperfect
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has attestedperfect
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am attestingprogressive
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are attestingprogressive
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is attestingprogressive
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have been attestingperfect progressive
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has been attestingperfect progressive
Past
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attestedsimple
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had attestedperfect
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was attestingprogressive
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were attestingprogressive
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had been attestingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of attest
First recorded in 1590–1600; < Middle French attester, from Latin attestārī “to bear witness to, affirm, confirm” equivalent to at- at- + testārī “to witness” ( see testis ( def. ))
Explanation
To attest is to prove or declare to be true. For example: the fact that you aced the SAT attests to the strength of your vocabulary. Attest and testify come from the same Latin word testari, which means "to declare." Although both words are kind of formal, you often testify in a courtroom, but attest doesn't require a court of law to function. You can attest to anything — that the funny looking shoes toned your thighs, that what someone says is true, or that the new acne medicine really works. To remember it, think of when you pass a test, you attest that you know the material.
Vocabulary lists containing attest
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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Posted
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The Ancient Period, Before 600 BCE
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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:
He was, as history now appears to attest, dangling a carrot that he would never allow you to have.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
Past team-mates for club and country will queue up to attest to his character as a player and a person.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
None of this is bad on its own, as millions of Sims fans can attest.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
Tens of thousands of comments on BookTok, a popular book community on TikTok, attest to the popularity of one of Russia's greatest novelists with the social media generation.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
Greek art reached a pinnacle of beauty as respect for the individual flourished in Athens, and Roman relics attest to the might of the greatest empire in the ancient world.
From "The Annotated Mona Lisa" by Carol Strickland and John Boswell
As Yiyun Li’s well-crafted yet somewhat static novel attests, this is nothing new.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Shew said he’s only supposed to be given registrations to process if the would-be voter attests they are a U.S. citizen, as federal law requires.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
The huge demand in the U.S. attests to advice gone unheeded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
"Belen Garijo's brilliant international career attests to her strategic vision and her ability to drive profound and value-creating transformations," board chairman Frederic Oudea said in a statement.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
Gorgias’s brother Herodicus is a doctor, and the former attests that when trying to persuade a patient to submit to a course of treatment, his oratory is far more effective than his brother’s medical expertise.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
They must be segregated from issuer assets, independently attested and subject to federal supervision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
In court, lawyers for the department attested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection rigorously adhered to this standard.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2026
The two have not talked since the report was published Wednesday, but that’s not out of the ordinary, James attested.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2026
A large, gestural 1972 painting attested to a road not taken, while records of his sojourns in Europe and Africa revealed the influence of architecture on abstract structure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
The names of neither father nor son are attested much elsewhere.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
A medical letter attesting to your mother’s health might help.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
"Then, the video attesting to the truth would be shown," she says.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
The resulting image is crystalline—and full of symbolic touches attesting to his status.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Just seven weeks later, he got another mortgage for a seven-bedroom, marble-floored neighboring property, attesting that it too would be his principal residence.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2025
The note was stamped with the school’s official seal, attesting that he was a full-time student and only thirteen years old.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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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.
