witnesses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of witness.

   Police interviewed the witnesses separately to compare their accounts.

   Both witnesses signed the document in front of a notary.

   Note

   A regular plural, with the -es that follows a sibilant ending, as in boxes and churches. It serves the countable meanings: people who saw something, people called to testify in court, people who sign at a wedding or a document's execution, and things that stand as signs. Witness meaning testimony is uncountable and has no plural. Capitalized, Witnesses names Jehovah's Witnesses. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of witness.

   The old courthouse witnesses dozens of trials every year.

   Each notary witnesses the signature before stamping the page.

   Note

   Most uses take a direct object: she witnesses the accident; the clerk witnesses a will, watching it signed and adding a signature to vouch that it is genuine. One use stands apart and needs no object. In religious speech, a believer who witnesses gives personal testimony and sometimes preaches to others or on their behalf. Whatever the meaning, the -es form goes with a singular subject: he, she or it witnesses.

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