verification

verification — noun

1. the activity of checking or proving whether a piece of information, a claim, a p

1.nounB2
Definition

the activity of checking or proving whether a piece of information, a claim, a person's identity, or a set of data is true, correct, or valid

Example

Dr. Okafor's research team carried out a thorough verification of the experimental results before publishing.

uncountable: verification of [data/results]

The bank requires two forms of identification for the verification of new account holders.

Common collocations
  • identity verification
  • fact verification
  • data verification
  • verification process
  • verification system
  • verification of results
  • verification of identity
  • thorough verification
  • independent verification
Synonyms
  • confirmation

    emphasises that something is shown to be already true; less focus on the checking process itself

  • validation

    more technical; often about whether something meets a required standard or format rather than factual truth

  • authentication

    specific to proving the identity or origin of a person or document

Antonyms
  • falsification

    the deliberate altering of information to make it untrue or misleading

  • invalidation

    the act of showing that something is not valid or acceptable

Grammar Patterns

verification of [something]

verification that [clause]

Usage Note

Frequently uncountable — you talk about *verification of* something, not *a verification* in most cases. Common in formal, technical, and institutional contexts such as scientific research, banking and finance, journalism, and cybersecurity.

Common Mistakes

Please send the document for verification of the company.
Please send the document for verification of the company's registered address.
the thing being checked must be a specific detail (address, identity, data), not an entire entity.
We need to do a verification about the news.
We need to carry out a verification of the news report.
verification typically takes the preposition *of*, not *about*.

Word family

  • verify
    verbB2
  • verifiable
    adjectiveC1
  • verifiably
    adverbC1
  • unverified
    adjectiveB2
  • verifier
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words relate to establishing truth or correctness, but they differ in scope and context. *Verification* is the broadest term: it covers checking factual claims, identity, data, or compliance through evidence or testing. *Confirmation* is narrower — it implies that something is already believed to be true and is now being supported with additional evidence, so the emphasis is on strengthening certainty rather than discovering truth. *Validation* moves beyond factual truth into the domain of standards and acceptance: a document is validated if it meets the required format, a test is validated if it measures what it claims to measure. *Authentication* is the most specialised — it concerns proving that something is genuine, typically the identity of a person or the origin of a digital message. In everyday use: a journalist practises *fact verification*; a colleague asks for *confirmation* of a meeting time; quality control performs *data validation*; a website uses two-factor *authentication* for logins.

verification ↗confirmation ↗validationauthentication ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • verification process
  • verification system
  • verification check
  • verification step
  • means of verification

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Derived from Latin *verificatio*, which was built from *verus* meaning 'true' and *facere* meaning 'to make'. The word passed through French before entering English around the 1500s. Its original sense of 'making something true' gradually shifted to the modern meaning of 'checking or proving that something is true.'