testament

SayTES-tuh-muhntUS · UK/ˈtɛs.tə.mənt/AUS/ˈtes.tə.mənt/

6 meanings of testament

1
nouncountable
Something that stands as tangible proof of something, or as a tribute to it.
The rebuilt town hall stands as a testament to the community's resilience after the fire.
His long career is a testament to what talent and stubbornness can achieve together.
Similartribute, testimony, monument, proof
Note
It comes as a testament to something, and it is usually admiring, as with Roman aqueducts and the engineering skill they prove. An adjective can turn it sour: Steven Blevins, writing in Gay Community News in 1976, called a paper's ads "a sad testament to" its attitude toward gay men.
2
nouncountable
Either of the two main divisions of the Christian scriptures.
The four Gospels open the New Testament.
The course traces how the two Testaments portray mercy and judgment.
Note
The scriptural use was already Latin: in Late Latin testamentum meant both a will and one of the divisions of the Bible, so English inherited the two meanings together. In this sense the word is capitalized and nearly always comes with Old or New, or as the two Testaments.
3
nouncountable
A formal, legally valid written document in which a person states how their estate and possessions are to pass to named heirs after their death.
The lawyer read aloud the last will and testament of Margaret Ellis.
Under the terms of his testament, the farm passed to his two nephews.
Similarwill
Note
The phrase last will and testament pairs the plain English word with the Latin one, and the doubling still heads many such documents; in ordinary talk, will does the work alone. Behind the Latin testamentum stands testis, a witness: one verb meant both to bear witness and to make a will. In Late Latin the same word came to name the two divisions of the Bible.
4
nouncountable
A statement or other expression of what someone firmly believes.
The novelist called her last book a testament of faith in ordinary people.
Read today, the pamphlet is the group's political testament, laying out everything it stood for.
Similarmanifesto, credo, creed, declaration

Less common meanings

5
verb
To bequeath or leave by will.
6
verb
To make a will.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English testament, from Old French testament, from Latin testāmentum ("the publication of a will, a will"; in Late Latin also one of the divisions of the Bible), from testor ("I am a witness, testify, attest, make a will"), from testis ("one who attests, a witness").