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validate

/ˈvælɪdeɪt//ˈvælɪdeɪt/·verb
to confirm that something is true, accurate, or officially acceptable
Fig. 1 — A form comes down the desk and stops under a hooded lamp.
01Definition

To validate is to confirm that something holds up — that a claim is accurate, a document is official, a method is sound, or a feeling is understandable. The word runs from Latin validus, 'strong', and its job is to give something the strength of being checked and found good. It stretches across worlds: you validate data or a form (it passes the checks), validate a ticket (it is stamped official), validate a hypothesis (evidence supports it), and validate a person's feelings (you acknowledge them as real). In each, an outside confirmation is granted.

02In use
  • iReviewers asked the team to replicate the trial before they would validate its conclusions.
  • iiThe scanner validates each ticket at the gate, and a green light means it is genuine.
  • iiiA good listener validates how you feel before rushing to fix anything.
03Collocations
  • validate the results
  • validate a hypothesis
  • validate the data
  • validate a claim
  • validate someone's feelings

Family validation (noun) · valid (adjective) · validity (noun)

04Relations

=confirm, verify, substantiate, corroborate, authenticate

≠invalidate, refute

06TOEFL & IELTS

A versatile academic verb both exams reward — findings, methods, and models are validated when evidence confirms they hold. In careful writing note the hedge: scientists validate or support a hypothesis rather than 'prove' it. The word also has a strong everyday-emotional life (to validate someone's feelings) that Speaking tasks can use. Keep it apart from verify: broadly, you verify that something was done correctly, and validate that it is the right thing or genuinely holds — a distinction software and engineering texts lean on.

07Asked
What is the difference between validate and verify?
In software and engineering they split precisely: verification asks 'was it built correctly?' — does it match the spec; validation asks 'is it the right thing?' — does it meet the real need. A calculator verified to add correctly still fails validation if users needed a currency converter. Outside tech the two often blur, but that is the distinction the terms carry.
What does it mean to validate someone's feelings?
It means acknowledging their emotion as real and understandable — 'it makes sense you'd feel hurt' — without necessarily agreeing with them or fixing anything. Validation here is recognition, not approval: you confirm the feeling is legitimate given how they see things. It is a core idea in therapy and communication, and it explains the everyday phrase 'I felt validated' — someone treated your reaction as worth taking seriously.
What does 'validate parking' mean?
Mostly in the United States, to validate parking is for a shop, restaurant, or clinic to stamp or scan your parking ticket so the parking is free or discounted — their way of confirming you were a genuine customer. 'Do you validate?' asks whether the business will cover the fee. It is the same core sense as everywhere else: an official confirmation is granted to the ticket.
What does it mean to validate data or a form?
It means checking that the input is complete and in the correct, acceptable form before it is used — that an email field really contains an email, a date is a real date, a required box is filled. Validation catches bad input early. In the scene above, each field is ticked off only if it holds, and the form is stamped valid only when they all do — the everyday meaning of 'form validation'.
Does validate mean to prove something is true?
It means to confirm something holds up under evidence or checks — a claim, a method, a document, a model. But in science 'validate' is not quite 'prove': researchers validate or support a hypothesis when results back it, while staying open to future evidence, because a single confirmation is rarely final proof. In legal and official use, though, to validate a document is to make it genuinely, formally acceptable.
How do you pronounce validate?
VAL-i-date, /ˈvælɪdeɪt/, with the stress on the first syllable and a full '-date' ending. The adjective valid is VAL-id, and the noun validation is val-i-DAY-shun. The other noun, validity, shifts the stress to the second syllable — vuh-LID-i-tee — and its first vowel softens to a schwa, though in validate, valid, and validation it stays the short 'a' of cat.
Can you validate a hypothesis or results?
Yes. A model is validated by testing its predictions against real, independent data — data it was not built on — which is a far stronger check than merely fitting the numbers it already saw, and a distinct step from that fitting. A hypothesis is validated when fresh evidence confirms it holds up under testing. In both, validation is an outside test the thing must pass, not a stamp granted on request.