confirm
Americanverb (used with object)
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confirms,
present (3rd person singular)
-
confirmed,
past participle, past
-
confirming
present participle
-
to establish the truth, accuracy, validity, or genuineness of; corroborate; verify.
This report confirms my suspicions.
- Synonyms:
- validate, authenticate, substantiate, prove
- Antonyms:
- disprove
-
to acknowledge with definite assurance.
Did the hotel confirm our room reservation?
-
to make valid or binding by some formal or legal act; sanction; ratify.
to confirm a treaty;
to confirm her appointment to the Supreme Court.
- Antonyms:
- invalidate
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to make firm or more firm; add strength to; settle or establish firmly.
Their support confirmed my determination to run for mayor.
- Synonyms:
- fix
- Antonyms:
- shake
-
to strengthen (a person) in habit, resolution, opinion, etc..
The accident confirmed him in his fear of driving.
-
to administer the religious rite of confirmation to.
verb
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(may take a clause as object) to prove to be true or valid; corroborate; verify
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(may take a clause as object) to assert for a second or further time, so as to make more definite
he confirmed that he would appear in court
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to strengthen or make more firm
his story confirmed my doubts
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to make valid by a formal act or agreement; ratify
-
to administer the rite of confirmation to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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confirmabilitynoun
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confirmernoun
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unconfirmabilitynoun
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preconfirmverb (used with object)
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reconfirmverb (used with object)
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unconfirmverb (used with object)
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confirmableadjective
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confirmatoryadjective
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nonconfirmingadjective
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confirminglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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confirmsimple
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confirmssimple
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have confirmedperfect
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has confirmedperfect
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am confirmingprogressive
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are confirmingprogressive
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is confirmingprogressive
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have been confirmingperfect progressive
-
has been confirmingperfect progressive
Past
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confirmedsimple
-
had confirmedperfect
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was confirmingprogressive
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were confirmingprogressive
-
had been confirmingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of confirm
First recorded in 1250–1300; from Latin confirmāre “to strengthen, confirm” ( see con-, firm 1); replacing Middle English confermen, from Old French, from Latin, as above
Explanation
When you need to make sure before you leave that you have a reservation, you often call ahead to confirm, that is, to make sure that your tickets or space are set aside for you. The firm in confirm should give you a clue as to the word's meaning: to shore up or verify something. When you make sure something is set, or firm, you confirm it. The word comes from the Latin con- "together, altogether," and firmāre "make firm," so confirm originally meant roughly "to make (something) altogether firm."
Vocabulary lists containing confirm
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 3
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 2
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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:
“It is with profound sadness that we confirm the passing of Duncan Sheik,” a statement posted Friday on Sheik’s Instagram account read.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Two studies confirm that sentiment, rather than anything fundamental, is the source of investors’ low equity exposure in October.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
At least we can confirm he has retained some motor skills, and it’s possible he couldn’t hear the press yelling at him or just decided to ignore them.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
The foreign ministries of the Philippines and Taiwan declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the hacked materials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Autumn goes pale and looks at me as if to confirm that she did, indeed, hear Ama right.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Neither study directly confirms or overturns the original Menin results.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
Macklemore confirms ‘Ed Sheeran and his team’ decided to remove him from the latter’s tour.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
Revolut confirms customer data breach through fake government requests.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
“The court’s judgment in favor of Pfizer confirms the importance of the contractual obligations that underpinned a successful European pandemic response,” a company spokeswoman said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
“It confirms the theory on which I have been working, it tells me that I am right, and also how very far there is still to go...”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
As for the residual costs of exercising her right to offend back in 2017, Griffin confirmed that some of her shows still draw protesters.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
The hacks, which the company confirmed on Friday, occurred in May as part of a test run by the company Irregular, which was also involved in similar incidents disclosed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The museum has neither publicly confirmed nor denied injecting herbicide into the tree, and has not responded to the BBC's questions.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Dasafo’s friend Kash Ahmad confirmed to the BBC that he died at his home in Ghana.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
When a hand with clawed fingers and thickened nails was put into his, he understandably left shaken to his core—and a confirmed spirit believer.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
After ProPublica’s story was published, Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, released a joint statement confirming Kremlev’s role.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
"Currently, we are focused on the retrieval, and after that we will proceed with the investigation," she said, confirming the bodies had been found in the ship's economy accommodation area.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
“Last week’s payroll numbers were stronger than expected, confirming markets’ hawkish bias for the upcoming Fed meeting,” ING senior rates strategists Benjamin Schroeder and Michiel Tukker say in a note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The business is also undergoing restructuring, confirming that fewer than 300 roles will go less than a year after a cyber attack halted production for more than a month.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
At the same time, La Llorona confirming Juanita’s crazy plan made me question my own sanity.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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.
