Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word evidence. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word evidence, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say evidence in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word evidence you have here. The definition of the word evidence will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofevidence, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 18:
We find material evidences of magical practices in the European caves of the Palæolithic age[.]
Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
(law) Anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.
For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.
In the mean time, Cluffe had arrived. He was a little bit huffed and grand at being nailed as an evidence, upon a few words carelessly, or, if you will, confidentially dropped at his own mess-table, […]
A body of objectively verifiable facts that are positively indicative of, and/or exclusively concordant with, that one conclusion over any other.
Usage notes
As a noun, the word evidence is usually treated as uncountable. Thus, enumeration would generally follow a formulation such as, "Five pieces of evidence were submitted. That evidence was highly convincing." It would rarely be expressed as, "Five evidences were submitted. Those evidences were highly convincing."
evidence (third-person singular simple presentevidences, present participleevidencing, simple past and past participleevidenced)
(transitive) To provide evidence for, or suggest the truth of.
She was furious, as evidenced by her slamming the door.
1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234:
That he was a great locomotive engineer, it would be foolish to deny or even to qualify; that he was also extremely pig-headed is fairly evidenced by David Joy, who in his 'Diaries' said that Stroudley always wanted his way 'to the last nut and bolt.'
1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251:
Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost.
2022 April 6, Conrad Landin, “ScotRail in the public eye...”, in RAIL, number 954, page 39:
"And I think we can do better, and we have to do better, because we need to evidence why public ownership of the railways is going to work for the people who use it.