test
/tɛst/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms tests testing tested testest testedst testeth
- noun A challenge, trial.
- noun (academia) An examination, given often during the academic term.
- noun A session in which a product, piece of equipment, or system is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.
- noun (psychology, psychometrics) A standardised measure, consisting of one or more items. “aptitude test”
- noun (cricket, normally “Test”) A Test match.
- noun (marine biology) The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins; testa.
- noun A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
- noun (botany) Testa; seed coat.
- verb To challenge, to put a strain on (something). “Climbing the mountain tested our stamina.”
- verb To refine (gold, silver, etc.) in a test or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
- verb 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”
- verb (academics) To administer or assign an examination, often given during the academic term, to (somebody).
- verb To place a product or piece of equipment under everyday and/or extreme conditions and examine it for its durability, etc.
- verb (copulative) To be shown to be by test. “He tested positive for cancer.”
- verb (chemistry) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent. “to test a solution by litmus paper”
- verb (intransitive, transitive, slang) To challenge (someone) to a fight.
- noun (obsolete) A witness.
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To attest (a document) legally, and date it.
- verb (obsolete, intransitive) To make a testament, or will.
- noun (cricket) A Test match.
Synonyms
examination quiz all one's life's worth challenge mountain trial trial run tryout mental test mental testing psychometric test exam run prove try try out examine essay screen
Antonyms
Etymology
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 Middle English teste, from Old French teste, test and Latin testis (“one who attests, a witness”).
The river is first attested 877 as Terstan. The name is of Brythonic origin, possibly related to Welsh trais (“violence, battle”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
- noun Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial; as, to put a man's assertions to a test. "Bring me to the test." Shak.
- verb To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
- verb To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try; as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument.
Etymology [OE. test test, or cupel, potsherd, F. têt, from L. testum an earthen vessel; akin to testa a piece of burned clay, an earthen pot, a potsherd, perhaps for tersta, and akin to torrere to patch, terra earth (cf. Thirst, and Terrace), but cf. Zend tasta cup. Cf. Test a shell, Testaceous, Tester a covering, a coin, Testy, Tête- à-tête.]
Etymology [L. testis. Cf. Testament, Testify.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “test”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details