TESTIMONY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does testimony mean? 

• TESTIMONY (noun)
  The noun TESTIMONY has 3 senses:

1. a solemn statement made under oath

2. an assertion offering firsthand authentication of a fact

3. something that serves as evidence

  Familiarity information: TESTIMONY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TESTIMONY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A solemn statement made under oath

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("testimony" is a kind of...):

evidence ((law) all the means by which any alleged matter of fact whose truth is investigated at judicial trial is established or disproved)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "testimony"):

witness (testimony by word or deed to your religious faith)

declaration ((law) unsworn statement that can be admitted in evidence in a legal transaction)

attestation (the action of bearing witness)

affidavit (written declaration made under oath; a written statement sworn to be true before someone legally authorized to administer an oath)

subornation (perjured testimony that someone was persuaded to give)

Derivation:

testify (give testimony in a court of law)

testimonial (of or relating to or constituting testimony)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An assertion offering firsthand authentication of a fact

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

according to his own testimony he can't do it

Hypernyms ("testimony" is a kind of...):

assertion; asseveration; averment (a declaration that is made emphatically (as if no supporting evidence were necessary))

Derivation:

testify (give testimony in a court of law)

testify (provide evidence for)

testimonial (of or relating to or constituting testimony)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Something that serves as evidence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

testimonial; testimony

Context example:

his effort was testimony to his devotion

Hypernyms ("testimony" is a kind of...):

evidence (an indication that makes something evident)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "testimony"):

good authority (testimony by someone who should know)

testament (strong evidence for something)

Derivation:

testify (give testimony in a court of law)

testify (provide evidence for)

testimonial (of or relating to or constituting testimony)

 Context examples 

Mrs. Palmer's information respecting Willoughby was not very material; but any testimony in his favour, however small, was pleasing to her.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Thank you, Eleanor—a most honourable testimony.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Their pride in these girls, and their submission of themselves to all their whims, was the pleasantest little testimony to their own worth I could have desired to see.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She formally charged Michael Dennin with the murder of Dutchy and Harkey, and the prisoner lay in his bunk and listened to the testimony, first of Hans, and then of Edith.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I have a witness to the fact, whose testimony even you, sir, will scarcely controvert.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The application of medical knowledge to questions of law; research, reports and testimony in court by experts in medical science to assist in determining a legal question.

(Forensic Medicine, NCI Thesaurus)

I cannot produce written proof again, but I can give as authentic oral testimony as you can desire, of what he is now wanting, and what he is now doing.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Thus far I have gone, tracing a secure way over the pathless seas, the very stars themselves being witnesses and testimonies of my triumph.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

So Martin went on into a thorough study of evolution, mastering more and more the subject himself, and being convinced by the corroborative testimony of a thousand independent writers.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dying men had sworn to it, and to the mine the site of which it marked, clinching their testimony with nuggets that were unlike any known grade of gold in the Northland.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)