assertion
Pluralassertions
- 1A declaration or statement that someone puts forward as true.
The committee examined each assertion in the report before signing off.
His confident assertion that profits would double went unchallenged.
Similarclaim, statement, declaration, contention, allegation
Oppositedenial
Note
Here the word names the product, the thing declared, and so it counts: one assertion, many assertions, a man of strong assertions. In logic it is what carries a truth value, the claim that can be affirmed or denied. Reasoning research sorts such statements by type. Ruth M. J. Byrne's The Rational Imagination (2007) asks how people handle a semifactual assertion once they learn its outcome came true.
- 2The act of declaring something positively and firmly; a confident statement of what one holds to be true.
The witness's firm assertion left no doubt about her account.
Repeated, forceful assertion eventually won the room over.
Similardeclaration, affirmation, statement, claim, insistence
Oppositedenial
Note
The speech act rather than its result: the declaring itself, not the thing declared, which belongs to the "statement" meaning. As a mass noun it names a way of proceeding, as in repeated, forceful assertion, rather than any single claim, and it pairs naturally with words of force such as firm. The noun came into English from Middle French assertion, itself from Latin assertio.
- 3A statement or declaration put forward as true but offered without support or evidence.
The reviewer dismissed the paper's central assertion as unsupported speculation.
Calling it a fact doesn't help; it remains an assertion until you prove it.
Similarclaim, allegation, contention
Note
The skeptical use, where the word itself carries the charge that proof is missing. Its signature partner is bare: a bare assertion has nothing behind it. Context separates it from the neutral "statement" meaning. A rail company that could provide no proof for its assertion is making a claim of this kind. In argument, calling something an assertion is therefore a mild accusation, not a neutral description.
- 4A statement in a program that checks whether a condition is true at a given point, used to find bugs.
Each assertion in the test suite verifies that the function returns the expected value.
The developer placed an assertion before the loop to guarantee the index stayed in range.
Similarassert
Note
A programmer's safeguard: a check written into code that should never fail, so a failure signals a bug. When the condition is false, the program typically halts or raises an error. The term reaches into hardware verification too. Srikanth Vijayaraghavan and Meyyappan Ramanathan (2006) write of assertion code and an assertion failure. They warn that the check itself must be correct for a failure to mean a real design error.
- 5The defending or upholding of a right, claim, or position; the vindication of something one is entitled to.
The colony's assertion of self-rule put it on a collision course with the crown.
Quiet but firm, his assertion of authority kept the team in line.
Similardefense, affirmation, vindication
Note
A sense about deeds as much as words: asserting a right here means standing on it and making it hold. It almost always takes of plus the thing defended, as in the assertion of one's rights or prerogatives, or of authority. Read it as close to maintenance or vindication. That is why an assertion of sovereignty can be an act and not merely a claim.
- 6The set of claims that the preparer of a financial statement makes about it, which auditors examine during an audit.
The audit team tested management's assertion that all recorded sales actually occurred.
Each assertion in the balance sheet must be backed by reliable evidence.
Similarclaim
Note
An auditor's term for the claims built into a set of accounts. Those claims are that recorded items exist and nothing is missing, that values are right, that the rights and obligations shown are real, and that everything is properly presented. Auditors speak of testing an assertion by gathering evidence for or against it. The claims may be stated outright or simply implied by the figures appearing at all.
Practice
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Origin
This word came from Middle French "assertion," which came from the Latin "assertio."