CONFIRM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does confirm mean? 

• CONFIRM (verb)
  The verb CONFIRM has 5 senses:

1. establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts

2. strengthen or make more firm

3. make more firm

4. support a person for a position

5. administer the rite of confirmation to

  Familiarity information: CONFIRM used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONFIRM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they confirm    ... he / she / it confirms   
Past simple: confirmed   
Past participle: confirmed   
-ing form: confirming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

affirm; confirm; corroborate; substantiate; support; sustain

Context example:

The evidence supports the defendant

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confirm"):

back; back up (establish as valid or genuine)

vouch (give supporting evidence)

verify (confirm the truth of)

demonstrate; establish; prove; shew; show (establish the validity of something, as by an example, explanation or experiment)

document (support or supply with references)

validate (prove valid; show or confirm the validity of something)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

confirmation (additional proof that something that was believed (some fact or hypothesis or theory) is correct)

confirmation (information that confirms or verifies)

confirmative; confirmatory (serving to support or corroborate)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strengthen or make more firm

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

confirm; reassert

Context example:

The witnesses confirmed the victim's account

Hypernyms (to "confirm" is one way to...):

affirm (say yes to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confirm"):

maintain; uphold (support against an opponent)

verify (attach or append a legal verification to (a pleading or petition))

corroborate; validate (give evidence for)

reconfirm (confirm again)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

They confirm that there was a traffic accident

Derivation:

confirmation (additional proof that something that was believed (some fact or hypothesis or theory) is correct)

confirmation (information that confirms or verifies)

confirmatory (serving to support or corroborate)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make more firm

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Confirm thy soul in self-control!

Hypernyms (to "confirm" is one way to...):

beef up; fortify; strengthen (make strong or stronger)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Support a person for a position

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

The Senate confirmed the President's candidate for Secretary of Defense

Hypernyms (to "confirm" is one way to...):

approve; O.K.; okay; sanction (give sanction to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

confirmation (making something valid by formally ratifying or confirming it)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Administer the rite of confirmation to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

the children were confirmed in their mother's faith

Hypernyms (to "confirm" is one way to...):

covenant (enter into a covenant)

Domain category:

faith; organized religion; religion (an institution to express belief in a divine power)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The group confirmed the results using another dataset including 2,276 whole-mount pathology images (10 billion image patches) from St. Marianna University Hospital and Aichi Medical University Hospital.

(Artificial Intelligence Identifies Features Associated with Cancer Recurrence, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

“And the boy's is, of all such dispositions that ever I have seen,” remarked his sister, “the most confirmed and stubborn. I think, my dear Clara, even you must observe it?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then, in 2017, scientists with the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-ray Observatory (HAWC) near Puebla, Mexico, confirmed earlier ground-based detections of a small gamma-ray halo around Geminga.

(NASA’s Fermi Mission Links Nearby Pulsar’s Gamma-ray ‘Halo’ to Antimatter Puzzle, NASA)

The recent Hubble observations allowed a team of astronomers to refine the mass and size estimates for these worlds — independently confirming their "puffy" nature.

('Cotton Candy' Planet Mysteries Unravel in New Hubble Observations, NASA)

To what extent the findings can also be confirmed in humans is still unclear, according to the authors.

(German scientists find potential treatment for obesity, Agência Brasil)

They confirmed this finding in a zebrafish model.

(Using both marijuana and alcohol during early pregnancy may increase the likelihood of disrupting fetal development, National Institutes of Health)

The minimum amount of time required to meet the criteria for a confirmed response to treatment.

(Confirmed Response Minimum Duration, NCI Thesaurus)

I thought it coming on before our acquaintance ceased, but it is now a confirmed feeling.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I had long felt with pleasure that many of my rustic scholars liked me, and when we parted, that consciousness was confirmed: they manifested their affection plainly and strongly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Before the girls could believe the happy truth, the doctor came to confirm it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)