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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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
The mighty works of Ramesis the Great, Memphis, Karnak and Thebes asseverate The pomp and glory, Egypt, of your ancient state.
From Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland by Joseph Tatlow
No one appeared to think it worth while to asseverate the fact, for it was self-evident.
From Black Ivory by Francis B. Pearson
How wise was his nightly habit, as he settled himself in bed before falling asleep, to asseverate with a sigh of thankfulness that no man living was more contented and healthier than he!
From Apologia Diffidentis by O. M. (Ormonde Maddock) Dalton
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
"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
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
Peter asseverated again: "Though I should die with ye, yet will I not deny thee."
From Ludicrous Aspects Of Christianity A Response To The Challenge Of The Bishop Of Manchester by Austin Holyoak
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
Are they to be summarily disposed of as resting upon some tacit assumption of that old-grannyism which delights in asseverating that times are not what they used to be?
From The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske
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
Claiming culture, it is the crudest; asseverating its pre-eminence, it is the basest; denying all outside values and virtue, it is the narrowest.
From Strictly business: more stories of the four million by O. Henry
Georgie cried day and night, merely asseverating that she hated Joe, and loved Ma, and she wished people would let her alone.
From Saturday's Child by Kathleen Thompson Norris
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.
