different between verity vs confirm

English

Etymology

From Middle English verite, from Anglo-Norman verité or Middle French verité, from Old French verité, from Latin v?rit?s, from the adjective v?rus (“true”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v???ti/

Noun

verity (countable and uncountable, plural verities)

1. Truth, fact or reality, especially an enduring religious or ethical truth; veracity.
   • 1602 : William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 2

     [...] but in the verity of extolment

     I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion

     of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of

     him, his semblable in his mirror, and who else would

     trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:

     For the assured truth of things is derived from the principles of knowledg, and causes which determine their verities.
2. A true statement; an established doctrine.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 290-1:

     Absolutist verities were not only being challenged in more systematic and more daring forms than hitherto; the parameters of political debate were also being widened by both government and its critics.

Related terms

English

Alternative forms

• confirme (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English confirmen, confermen, from Old French confermer, from Latin confirm?re (“to make firm, strenghten, establish”), from com- (“together”) + firmare (“to make firm”), from firmus (“firm”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?n?f??m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?n?f?m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m
• Hyphenation: con?firm

Verb

confirm (third-person singular simple present confirms, present participle confirming, simple past and past participle confirmed)

1. To strengthen; to make firm or resolute.
2. (transitive, Christianity) To administer the sacrament of confirmation on (someone).
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 35:

     Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, was baptized and confirmed at the age of three days.

3. To assure the accuracy of previous statements.

Synonyms

• (strengthen): See also Thesaurus:strengthen

Antonyms

• infirm
• disconfirm
• deny
• dispute
• contradict
• question

Related terms

• confirmability
• confirmation

Translations

See also

• verify
• corroborate
• establish
• prove

Further reading

• confirm in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• confirm in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• confirm at OneLook Dictionary Search