Jump to content

evidence

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: evidencë and évidence

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English evidence, from Old French [Term?], from Latin evidentia (“clearness, in Late Latin a proof”), from evidens (“clear, evident”); see evident.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈɛv.ɪ.dəns/, /ˈɛv.ə.dəns/
  • (US) IPA(key): [ˈɛv.ɪ.ɾɪns], [ˈɛv.ə.ɾɪns]
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈev.ɪ.dəns/
  • Hyphenation: ev‧i‧dence

Noun

[edit]

evidence (usually uncountable, plural evidences)

  1. Facts or observations presented in support of an assertion.
    There is no evidence that anyone was here earlier.
    We have enough cold hard evidence in that presentation which will make a world of pain for our parasitic friends at Antarctica.
    • 1748, [David Hume], Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
      In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
    • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 18:
      We find material evidences of magical practices in the European caves of the Palæolithic age[.]
    • 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106:
      Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
    • 2025 April 18, Henry Gass, “Amid deportation dispute, Trump and courts square off on who has last word”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
      The Supreme Court, in an order that no justice publicly opposed last week, said the administration needs to “facilitate” Mr. Ábrego García’s release from Salvadoran custody. There has been no evidence that the Trump administration has been making that effort.
  2. (law) Anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.
    • 2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman:
      For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.
  3. One who bears witness.
  4. A body of objectively verifiable facts that are positively indicative of, and/or exclusively concordant with, that one conclusion over any other.

Usage notes

[edit]
  • As a noun, the word evidence is usually treated as uncountable. Thus, enumeration would generally follow a formulation such as, "Five pieces of evidence were submitted. That evidence was highly convincing." It would rarely be expressed as, "Five evidences were submitted. Those evidences were highly convincing."

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Collocations

[edit]
Adjectives often used with "evidence"
  • documentary, physical, empirical, scientific, material, circumstantial, anectodal, objective, strong, weak, conclusive, hard

Translations

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

evidence (third-person singular simple present evidences, present participle evidencing, simple past and past participle evidenced)

  1. (transitive) To provide evidence for, or suggest the truth of.
    She was furious, as evidenced by her slamming the door.
    • 1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234:
      That he was a great locomotive engineer, it would be foolish to deny or even to qualify; that he was also extremely pig-headed is fairly evidenced by David Joy, who in his 'Diaries' said that Stroudley always wanted his way 'to the last nut and bolt.'
    • 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251:
      Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost.
    • 2022 April 6, Conrad Landin, “ScotRail in the public eye...”, in RAIL, number 954, page 39:
      "And I think we can do better, and we have to do better, because we need to evidence why public ownership of the railways is going to work for the people who use it.

Usage notes

[edit]

To be distinguished from evince.

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

Quotations

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

Albanian

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

evidence

  1. indefinite dative/ablative singular of evidencë

Czech

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

evidence f

  1. records
  2. registry, repository

Declension

[edit]
Declension of evidence (soft feminine)
singular plural
nominative evidence evidence
genitive evidence evidencí
dative evidenci evidencím
accusative evidenci evidence
vocative evidence evidence
locative evidenci evidencích
instrumental evidencí evidencemi
[edit]

See also

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

Friulian

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

evidence f (plural evidencis)

  1. evidence

Middle French

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

evidence f (plural evidences)

  1. evidence

Descendants

[edit]
  • French: évidence
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=evidence&oldid=84648686"