confirmatory.

1. Providing, or intended to provide, confirmation for an existing claim, report or expectation.

2. Designed to test specified hypotheses or predictions according to a planned analysis rather than primarily generate them from the same data.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• confirmatory evidence
• confirmatory check

On the page

The confirmatory check was planned before the disputed result was treated as established.

Confirmatory evidence strengthened the account without eliminating every alternative explanation.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Relational adjective; ordinary comparison applies only to the strength of confirming support. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: counterevidence assessment, argument critique, qualified assertion, formal disagreement. Disciplines: argumentation, research interpretation, social analysis. Commonness: moderately common.