testimony

American  

[tes-tuh-moh-nee, -muh-nee] / ˈtɛs təˌmoʊ ni, -mə ni /

noun

• testimonies
  plural

1. Law. the statement or declaration of a witness under oath or affirmation, usually in court.

   Synonyms:

   attestation, deposition

2. evidence in support of a fact or statement; proof.

   Synonyms:

   corroboration

3. open declaration or profession, as of faith.

   Synonyms:

   affirmation

4. Usually testimonies. the precepts of God.

5. the Decalogue as inscribed on the two tablets of the law, or the ark in which the tablets were kept. Exodus 16:34; 25:16.

6. Archaic. a declaration of disapproval; protest.

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testimony British  

/ ˈtɛstɪmənɪ /

noun

1. a declaration of truth or fact

2. law evidence given by a witness, esp orally in court under oath or affirmation

3. evidence testifying to something

   her success was a testimony to her good luck

4. Old Testament

   1. the Ten Commandments, as inscribed on the two stone tables

   2. the Ark of the Covenant as the receptacle of these (Exodus 25:16; 16:34)

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Synonym Usage

See evidence.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pretestimony
  noun
• retestimony
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• testimonies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of testimony

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin testimōnium, equivalent to testi(s) “witness” + -mōnium noun suffix; see -mony

Explanation

When you give testimony you are telling what you saw or what you know. Your testimony that your hand was not in the cookie jar goes against the testimony of several eyewitnesses. The Latin root for testimony is testis, meaning “ witness.” “Eye witness testimony” is a phrase you will hear often in legal discussions. An object can also give testimony, without speaking of course: "The statue they built of you outside the bowling alley offers testimony to your greatness."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

testimony testimonies

It’s hard to use a bullhorn in rock ‘n’ roll without looking stupid or overly dramatic, and it’s another testimony to Shannon’s presentation that you just nodded: of course there would be a bullhorn.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, which guides federal judges in weighing expert testimony, was recently revised by the Federal Judicial Center and the National Academies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Earlier this month, a judge found all three victims' testimony credible.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Local authorities said they declined to prosecute in 2024 because the complainant's testimony did not establish a lack of consent.

From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026

There is testimony, there are documents, there are maps, there are photographs, and there is plenty of other evidence to confirm the existence of a place called ‘Rome’.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Mr. Bonds is as friendly as a whistling postman and, more than that, a baseball genius, according to testimonies from such worthies as Don Mattingly and Dusty Baker.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Anthropic said the operation ran roughly 300 fake social media accounts, though it could not determine whether the testimonies or dossiers reached their intended audiences or influenced policy decisions.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

“Ever since the mural was put up, I look at it out of pure joy,” Leventhal, a senior director at the USC Shoah Foundation, which archives testimonies of Holocaust survivors, told the Times.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Witnesses gave testimonies in homespun terms, and clerks transcribed their statements by hand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

In this they are quite unlike testimonies, which degrade as they pass from ear to ear in an endless game of Chinese whispers; eighteenth-century probability theorists actually devised formulae for calculating this rate of degradation.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• affidavit
• data
• demonstration
• deposition
• documentation
• evidence
• information
• statement
• testament
• witness