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

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

He could asseverate with some justice, "I have never written an insincere note."

From Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers by Paul Rosenfeld

She did not asseverate any more, nor even say she was innocent.

From Sue, A Little Heroine by L. T. Meade

The phrase "to bear in hand" for "to asseverate," was still frequently used in the reign of Charles II.

From The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 New Edition by Alexander Pope

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

Le Temps asseverated that there was a middle course between the guillotine and acquittal—ten or fifteen years in prison.

From Time Magazine Archive

Premier Herriot asseverated that there was no pact which in any way invalidated any provision of the Treaty of Versailles.

From Time Magazine Archive

He asseverated in frantic tones his belief, that from the hour when he should lose their favour no fortune would ever attend on him, either in this world or the next.

From Gerald Fitzgerald The Chevalier by Charles James Lever

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

She was there admonished to tell the whole truth, but persisted in asseverating that Sidonia had never learned from her how to make a love-drink.

From Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania — Volume 1 by Wilhelm Meinhold

Now they have uprisen, and, asseverating that classical education is a pricked bubble, ask boldly for expensive apparatus and a larger tract of space in the time-table.

From The Lighter Side of School Life by Ian Hay

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

"Don't be alarmed, don't be alarmed; I'm not mad, by God, I'm not mad," the captain kept asseverating excitedly.

From The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Related Words

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

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