MEANING
1. Something that shows or provides strong evidence of a quality, achievement, or fact.
2. A document stating how a person’s property or affairs should be handled after their death.
Use it for
describing a surviving work as evidence of someone’s skill; showing that an object bears witness to a past life; connecting a lasting result with the effort behind itDistinguishes a document directing affairs after death from a surviving sign of a person’s qualities or actions. Writing functions: Death / Mortality.
Words that belong together
- a testament to courage
- a lasting testament
- a powerful testament to something
On the page
The repaired house stood as a testament to her patience.
The carefully labeled seeds were a quiet testament to a future he had expected to see.
His testament left the house to his sister and the books to the school.
She signed the testament in the same room where her children had been born.
Word forms
- Base
- testament
Usage notes
Countable noun: testament, testaments. Figurative evidence commonly takes a testament to something. Biblical names such as Old Testament are proper titles and are not added as separate vocabulary. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common in formal writing; will sense is familiar in legal wording (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.