testimony

• testimonie (obsolete)

From Latin testimōnium (“testimony”), from testis (“a witness”). See test.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛstɪmoʊni/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛstɪməni/

• Audio (US)

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testimony (countable and uncountable, plural testimonies)

1. (law) Statements made by a witness in court.
   • 2012 August 21, Pilkington, Ed, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian‎:

     The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991.

2. An account of first-hand experience.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     [Thou] for the testimony of truth, hast borne / Universal reproach.

3. (religion) In a church service, a personal account, such as of one's conversion.
4. Witness; evidence; proof of some fact.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Bible Mark vi. 11

     When ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.

• compel testimony
• testimonial

• test
• testify

• testimony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• testimony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.