Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
testimony. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
testimony, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
testimony in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
testimony you have here. The definition of the word
testimony will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
testimony, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English testimonie, from Old French testimonie, from Latin testimōnium (“testimony”).
Pronunciation
Noun
testimony (countable and uncountable, plural testimonies)
- (law) Statements made by a witness in court.
- Synonym: deposition
2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian:The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991.
- An account of first-hand experience.
1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC: for the testimony of truth, hast borne / Universal reproach.
- (religion) In a church service (or religious service), a personal account, such as one's conversion, testimony of faith, or life testimony.
- Witness; evidence; proof of some fact.
1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Mark 6:11:And whoſoeuer ſhall not receiue you, noꝛ heare you, when yee depart thence, *ſhake off the duſt vnder your feet, foꝛ a teſtimonie against them: Uerely I ſay vnto you, it ſhalbe moꝛe tolerable for Sodom and Gomoꝛrha in the day of iudgement, then foꝛ that citie.
2021 July 28, Fausto Cercignani, “On the alleged existence of a vowel /yː/ in early Modern English”, in English Language and Linguistics, volume 26, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 4:Of course, the testimony of the early writers on orthography and pronunciation on the question under discussion is not always easy to interpret, especially when they offer comparisons with foreign sounds or when they give descriptions derived from other sources or from classical models.
Derived terms
Translations
statement in court
- Arabic: شَهَادَة (ar) f (šahāda), إِفَادَة (ar) f (ʔifāda)
- Egyptian Arabic: شهادة f (šihāda)
- Armenian: ցուցմունք (hy) (cʻucʻmunkʻ)
- Azerbaijani: şahid ifadəsi, ifadə (az)
- Belarusian: паказа́нне n (pakazánnje)
- Bulgarian: показа́ние (bg) n (pokazánie)
- Catalan: testimoniatge m, testimoni (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 證言 / 证言 (zh) (zhèngyán), 證詞 / 证词 (zh) (zhèngcí)
- Czech: svědectví (cs) n
- Danish: vidnesbyrd (da) n
- Dutch: getuigenis (nl) n or f
- Estonian: tunnistus
- Finnish: todistajanlausunto (fi)
- French: témoignage (fr) m
- Galician: testemuño (gl) m
- Georgian: ჩვენება (čveneba)
- German: Zeugnis (de) n, Zeugenaussage (de) f, Aussage (de) f, Testimonium n (obsolete)
- Gothic: 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍄𐍅𐍉𐌳𐌴𐌹 f (weitwōdei)
- Greek: κατάθεση (el) f (katáthesi)
- Hebrew: עדות \ עֵדוּת (he) f (edút)
- Hindi: गवाही (hi) f (gavāhī)
- Hungarian: tanúvallomás (hu), vallomás (hu)
- Indonesian: kesaksian (id), keterangan (id)
- Irish: fianaise f
- Italian: testimonianza (it) f
- Japanese: 証言 (ja) (しょうげん, shōgen)
- Korean: 증언 (jeung'eon)
- Latin: testimōnium n
- Low German:
- German Low German: Tüügnis n
- Malay: testimoni
- Maori: taunaki
- Norman: têmoignage m
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forklaring (no) m or f
- Nynorsk: forklaring f, forklåring f
- Old English: ġewitnes f
- Ottoman Turkish: شهادت (şehadet), شاهدلك (şâhidlik), طانقلق (tanıklık)
- Persian: شهادت (fa) (šahâdat), گواهی (fa) (govâhi)
- Polish: zeznanie (pl) m
- Portuguese: testemunho (pt) m
- Romanian: depoziție (ro) f, declarație (ro) f, depoziție scrisă f
- Russian: показа́ние (ru) n (pokazánije)
- Scottish Gaelic: fianais f
- Serbo-Croatian: svjedočánstvo (sh) n
- Slovak: výpoveď f, svedectvo n
- Spanish: testimonio (es) m
- Swedish: vittnesmål (sv) n
- Thai: ปากคำ (th) (bpàak-kam)
- Turkish: ifade (tr)
- Ukrainian: показа́ння n (pokazánnja)
- Vietnamese: chứng cớ (vi), chứng cứ (vi), bằng chứng (vi)
- Walloon: temognaedje (wa) m
|
account of first-hand experience
personal account of conversion
witness; evidence; proof of some fact
Further reading
- “testimony”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “testimony”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.