confirm
verb
Simple meaning
Strengthen or make more firm.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhnfurmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈfɝm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Strengthen or make more firm
“The witnesses confirmed the victim's account.”
To strengthen; to make firm or resolute.
To assure the accuracy of previous statements.
Establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
Administer the rite of confirmation to
“The children were confirmed in their mother's faith.”
transitive
To approve a proposal or nomination.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Strengthen or make more firm
Used this way, confirm is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The witnesses confirmed the victim's account.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Strengthenverb
“The witnesses confirmed the victim's account.”
Administerverb
“The children were confirmed in their mother's faith.”
More ways to use confirm
- “The witnesses confirmed the victim's account.”verb
- “The Senate confirmed the President's candidate for Secretary of Defense.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Strengthen or make more firm.
To make strong; to strengthen.
To make firm; to confirm, or ratify; especially (law) to assert or confirm, as a judgment, decree, or order, brought….
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Having been established or made firm or received the rite of confirmation.
Indicating existence or presence of a suspected condition or pathogen.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Additional proof that something that was believed (some fact or hypothesis or theory) is correct.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.