validate
Americanverb (used with object)
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validates,
present (3rd person singular)
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validated,
past participle, past
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validating
present participle
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to make valid; substantiate; confirm.
Time validated our suspicions.
- Synonyms:
- prove, verify, authenticate
- Antonyms:
- disprove
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to give legal force to; legalize.
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to give official sanction, confirmation, or approval to, as elected officials, election procedures, documents, etc..
to validate a passport.
verb
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to confirm or corroborate
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to give legal force or official confirmation to; declare legally valid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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validationnoun
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validatornoun
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revalidateverb (used with object)
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unvalidatedadjective
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unvalidatingadjective
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validatoryadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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validatesimple
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validatessimple
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have validatedperfect
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has validatedperfect
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am validatingprogressive
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are validatingprogressive
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is validatingprogressive
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have been validatingperfect progressive
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has been validatingperfect progressive
Past
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validatedsimple
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had validatedperfect
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was validatingprogressive
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were validatingprogressive
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had been validatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of validate
First recorded in 1640–50; from Medieval Latin validātus (past participle of validāre “to make valid”), equivalent to valid- ( see valid) + -ātus past participle suffix ( see -ate 1)
Explanation
To validate is to prove that something is based on truth or fact, or is acceptable. It can also mean to make something, like a contract, legal. You may need someone to validate your feelings, which means that you want to hear, “No, you’re not crazy. It’s acceptable to be angry about that.” Or you may need someone to validate your parking ticket — which means you have to prove that you bought something, so you can get parking for free. Whatever it is you are seeking to validate needs the added support or action from someone else to make it valid.
Vocabulary lists containing validate
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 2
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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The ACT: The Language of the Test, List 3
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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:
I love that you validate gossip as part of the excavation process for making sure you’re having the right fight with the right information.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
"REACT is expanding its impact around the world. We have established close collaborations with India, Singapore, Tanzania and Mexico to validate these results in populations across the globe," Dr. Ibáñez said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
This year Nvidia has started using AI agents to help build virtual environments to train robots and validate whether the solutions from training work or not.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“His speech will provide an opportunity for the BoJ to validate or push back against market expectations for a 25bp interest rate hike in September,” CBA’s Carol Kong says in a research report.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
It would also validate this emerging field of study.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
"It was built upon foundational basic research at the Salk Institute, validates those preclinical findings in patients, and provides a road map for future studies that could someday establish a new treatment standard."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026
For residents and community groups, the report validates what they’ve been experiencing firsthand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
“A sizeable commitment from a frontier compute provider validates Indonesia’s ambition to move up the digital value chain and deepens the region’s ecosystem,” Tay writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
"This important certification validates the rigor of our airplane's design and recognizes the determination and resilience of our 737 MAX development team," said Stephanie Pope, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
If you have a heterogeneous class make up of many different ethnicities, abilities, races, providing activities validates who they are as people, and sends a message that their voices are valued.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
"Language is incredibly important and the words we choose can show recognition and make people feel validated and seen."
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
So far, users have submitted over 350,000 observations, about half of which have been validated and paid for.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
"We finally feel validated for everything we go through every day," says Dr Tony Cirillo, President of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Rather than simply drawing a line inland, their algorithms identify the fastest walking routes to refuge sites beyond "waves' reach," which local authorities have validated.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
He has a zealous smile on his face, like he’s just been validated.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
A messy legal battle ensued, and earlier this month the Missouri Supreme Court sided with the petitioners, finding Hoskins in contempt while validating the legality of the referendum petition.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"The next steps will involve validating these findings in animal models of early post-traumatic osteoarthritis and studying how ultrasound-based modulation affects long-term tissue repair in joint injury settings," Subramanian says.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
Carlini said the Ghost hack illustrated the difficulty of the problem the world now faces in validating, testing patches and then rolling them out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
“In that moment, it was incredibly validating to realize that if Guillermo liked what we were doing, then it made sense to keep on doing it,” Roy said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Five years later, a handsome, apple-cheeked young man named Andrew would look back at that conversation as one of the most validating moments of his life.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
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.
