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

—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

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

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

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

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

"He and Bertha Petterick are together, that is why he is so late," the fiend would asseverate.

From The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius by Sarah Grand

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

Del. Sir / It has been facetiously asseverated by some clerical wags here that Father Andrew Greeley has already published all his thoughts: now he is beginning to publish all his fantasies.

From Time Magazine Archive

Well," Miss Anthony asseverated, almost in tears, "I mean it.

From The War-Workers by E.M. Delafield

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

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

She would lie there, gazing at me, with a dumb fear in her eyes—and I would go on asseverating blindly, like an unsuccessful actor before a jeering audience.

From Sylvia's Marriage by Upton Sinclair

Note how your captains of industry are asseverating that factories in the North must cut wages in order to compete with those that have gone South.

From The Hindered Hand or, The Reign of the Repressionist by Robert E. Bell

"Yes, you did," cry I, passionately, asseverating what I have so lately and passionately denied.

From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton

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Related Words

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

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