Words / A / Law

authenticate

verb/ɔːˈθɛntɪkeɪt/

B2CEFR level
40/100Rarity: uncommon
TechnicalRegister

To establish that an item of evidence is genuinely what its proponent claims it to be.

You have to authenticate the recording before I'll let the jury hear a word of it.

Similar: verify

Topic: Evidence & procedure in Legal English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More law words: Evidence & procedure