Skip to the word

Added 4 October 2026

test

/test/ noun ▶ hear it

In Latin: perīclitor Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0), via the Free Dictionary API. More about test at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A challenge, trial.
A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
(academia) An examination, given often during the academic term.

verb

To challenge.
Climbing the mountain tested our stamina.
To refine (gold, silver, etc.) in a test or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try.
to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument

noun

A witness.

verb

To attest (a document) legally, and date it.
To make a testament, or will.

noun

(body building) testosterone

Origin

From Middle English test, teste, from Old French test, teste (“an earthen vessel, especially a pot in which metals were tried”), from Latin testum (“the lid of an earthen vessel, an earthen vessel, an earthen pot”), from *terstus, past participle of the root *tersa (“dry land”). See terra, thirst. The examination sense came via metaphor of the metallurgical sense: the way a metallurgist puts to the test their gold, a teacher may put to the test their students' knowledge. Displaced Old English afandung.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word