Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To declare positively or firmly; maintain to be true.
- v. To support or uphold the validity of; confirm.
- v. Law To declare solemnly and formally but not under oath.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To state or assert positively; tell with confidence; aver; declare to be a fact; maintain as true: opposed to deny.
- To make firm; establish, confirm, or ratify: as, the appellate court affirmed the judgment. Synonyms Assert, Affirm, Declare, etc. See
assert . - To declare or assert positively or solemnly.
- To declare solemnly before a court or magistrate, but without oath (a practice allowed where the affirmant has scruples against taking an oath); make a legal affirmation. See affirmation.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Law) to assert or confirm, as a judgment, decree, or order, brought before an appellate court for review.
- v. To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to aver; to maintain as true; -- opposed to
deny . - v. (Law) To declare, as a fact, solemnly, under judicial sanction. See Affirmation, 4.
- v. To declare or assert positively.
- v. (Law) To make a solemn declaration, before an authorized magistrate or tribunal, under the penalties of perjury; to testify by affirmation.
WordNet 3.0
- v. to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true
- v. establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
- v. say yes to
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French afermer, affermer, from Latin affirmare, adfirmare ("to present as fixed, aver, affirm"), from ad ("to") + firmare ("to make firm"), from firmus ("firm"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English affermen, from Old French afermer, from Latin affirmāre : ad-, ad- + firmāre, to strengthen (from firmus, strong. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true.”
“Christ came into existence before Abraham did (as Arians affirm is the meaning), but that He never came into being at all, but existed before”
“The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true (30). [”
“Against this view it can hardly be thought to militate that the Batak does not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other grounds for respecting the sacred animal or plant of his clan.”
“Batak does not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other grounds for respecting the sacred animal or plant of his clan.”
“For to affirm is to determine; now, every determination, to be true, must be reached empirically.”
System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery
“Philologists of yet greater name affirm that it was meant to designate _pre-eminence_, and therefore ought to be written _ante_, before, from the Latin, a language now pretty well forgotten, though the authors who wrote in it are still preserved in French translations.”
“What pure Christianity is, divested of all its ornaments, appendages, and corruption, I pretend not to say; but what it is not, I will venture to affirm, which is, that it is not the offspring of fraud or fiction: such, on”
“The lilting calls affirm basic Islamic tenets such as belief in one God and his Prophet”
“Scruton's is an entirely coherent argument if you accept the underlying world view according to which the role of art is to "affirm" the deep, if not always completely visible, truth in "the scheme of things" that manifests itself in beauty.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘affirm’.
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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a-, ad-
motion toward; addition to; nearness to
Note: can change formsadvance, admonish, admit, adjoin, ascribe, acclaim, affirm, aggrade, allege, announce, approve, arrive and 3 more...
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On speaking terms
Verbs describing speech. We are all tired of He said, She said. Here are some alternative verbs.
stated, declare, state, assert, affirm, air, articulate, deliver, describe, clarify, elucidate, enunciate and 19 more...
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Vocabulary Words
words to reference while writing something
cohesive, epitome, tempered, imply, prudent, sundry, sagest, agitation, giddy, disposition, inclination, gracious and 114 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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GRE
high frequent
industrious, feckless, debunk, quintessence, loquacious, obsequious, laconic, plethora, lugubrious, serendipity, facetious, turgid and 261 more...
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word list
abandon, ache, augment, avow, atone, approbate, apprehend, abut, apostatize, abase, abash, abate and 155 more...
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What a concept
surrender, submit, yield, self-sacrifice, relent, capitulate, compromise, accommodate, commiserate, forgive, placate, give and 94 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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oneasterism's words
Words that I like, that I don't use often enough, that are new to me, that friends and family have taught me, and so on.
lugubrious, reticent, eschelon, missive, penchant, copious, conspicuous, tranquil, redolent, asinine, inane, dilatory and 625 more...
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legal words
inchoate, incarceration, judgment, sentence, attempt, finding, imprisonment, due process, certification, probable cause, abnormality, whereas and 59 more...
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dinged gerunds
sans the -ing: gerundantics
pend, affirm, all-embrace, arc, asperse, athel, attest, awn, backtrack
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