# validity

Pronunciation: US/AUS say "vuh-LID-uh-tee" /vəˈlɪd.ə.ti/; UK say "vuh-LID-i-tee" /vəˈlɪd.ɪ.ti/

## Noun

1. The quality of being sound and well founded, or of being genuine rather than false.
   - Simple: The state of being true, real, or based on good reasons.
   - _The validity of his argument was never seriously in doubt._
   - _Scientists tested the validity of the new theory before publishing their findings._
2. The state of having legal force or being officially in effect.
   - Simple: The state of being officially allowed or accepted by law.
   - _The validity of the contract depends on both parties signing it._
   - _The validity of the visa expired at the end of the year._
3. The degree to which a measurement reflects the underlying thing it is intended to measure, rather than something else.
   - Simple: How well a test or measurement really measures what it is supposed to measure.
   - _Reviewers challenged the study's validity, arguing the questionnaire measured anxiety rather than depression._
   - _Establishing the validity of a new scale requires showing that it tracks the trait it claims to assess._
4. The genuineness of a sacrament (its counting as truly performed) when the required formal conditions are met, as distinct from whether it is effective or properly regular.
   - Simple: Whether a religious ceremony counts as real because the right basic steps were followed.
   - _Theologians debated the validity of a baptism administered by a layperson during an emergency._
   - _An unworthy minister does not destroy the validity of the sacrament, provided the correct form is observed._

## Origin

Formed from 'valid' plus the suffix '-ity', and borrowed from Middle French 'validité', which came from Late Latin 'validitas'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/validity (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).