bear witness

1. 1.

   provide evidence for

   “The blood test showed that he was the father”

   “Her behavior testified to her incompetence”

   Synonymstestifyproveevidenceshow

   Broaderinform

   Narrowerattestpresumeadduce

   law

2. 2.

   give testimony in a court of law

   Synonymstestifyattesttake the stand

   Broaderdeclare

   Narrowervouch

   law

Questions about bear witness

What does bear witness mean?

bear witness means "provide evidence for". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for bear witness?

Close synonyms include testify, prove, evidence, show, testify. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bear witness a common word?

bear witness is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.