assertion

English

Etymology

From Middle French assertion, from Latin assertio.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈsɜːʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈsɜɹʃən/, [əˈsɝʃn̩]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ʃən

Noun

assertion (countable and uncountable, plural assertions)

1. The act of asserting; positive declaration or averment.
2. Something which is asserted; a declaration; a statement asserted.

   You're a man of strong assertions!

   • 2007 January 26, Ruth M. J. Byrne, The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality‎^[1], MIT Press, →ISBN, page 140:

     Suppose you are given the semifactual assertion, "even if Nora had liked mathematics then she would have became^[sic] a scientist" and then you find out that Nora did in fact become a scientist.

3. A statement or declaration which lacks support or evidence.

   That's just a bare assertion.

   • 2022 August 24, Philip Haigh, “Network News: Union slams Avanti West Coast: 'lie' as services slashed”, in RAIL, number 964, page 6:

     Drivers' union ASLEF bluntly rebuffed the claim of unofficial action, calling it a lie. And Avanti West Coast was unable to provide any proof for its assertion, when questioned by RAIL.

4. Maintenance; vindication

   the assertion of one's rights or prerogatives

5. (programming) A statement in a program asserting a condition expected to be true at a particular point, used in debugging.
   • 2006, Srikanth Vijayaraghavan, Meyyappan Ramanathan, A Practical Guide for SystemVerilog Assertions, page 284:

     The user should be absolutely confident that the error issued is a real design error. In other words, a user should be confident that his assertion code is correct and that the assertion failure is not a false condition.

6. (finance) the set of information that the statement preparer is providing in a financial statement audit.

Synonyms

• accusation
• allegation
• censure
• charge
• crimination
• impeachment

Derived terms

• self-assertion

Related terms

• assertoric

Translations

affirmation; statement asserted

• Armenian: հաստատում (hy) (hastatum)
• Azerbaijani: iddia (az)
• Bashkir: дәғүә (dəğwə)
• Bulgarian: твърде́ние (bg) n (tvǎrdénie)
• Catalan: asserció (ca) f, afirmació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 斷言／断言 (zh) (duànyán), 主張／主张 (zh) (zhǔzhāng)

• Czech: tvrzení (cs) n
• Dutch: stellige bewering
• Esperanto: aserto
• Finnish: väite (fi), vakuutus (fi)
• French: (logic) assertion (fr) f, (rhetoric) confirmation (fr) f, assertion (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Versicherung (de) f, Zusicherung (de) f, Behauptung (de) f, Beteuerung (de) f, Erklärung (de) f, Vorbringen n, Aussage (de) m
• Italian: asserzione (it), affermazione (it) f, asserimento m, dichiarazione (it) f
• Japanese: 主張 (ja) (しゅちょう, shuchō)
• Korean: 단정 (ko) (danjeong), 주장 (ko) (jujang)
• Portuguese: asserção (pt) f, assertiva (pt) f, afirmação (pt)
• Romanian: afirmație (ro) f
• Russian: утвержде́ние (ru) n (utverždénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: тврдња f, tvrdnja (sh) f
• Spanish: afirmación (es) f, aserto (es) m
• Swedish: bekräftelse (sv) c
• Tagalog: giitsabi
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: тве́рдження n (tvérdžennja)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

maintenance; vindication; assertion of one's rights

• Bashkir: дәғүә (dəğwə)
• French: affirmation (fr) f
• German: Durchsetzung (de) f, Geltendmachung f

programming: statement asserting a true condition

• Esperanto: aserto
• Finnish: varmistus (fi)
• Portuguese: afirmação (pt) m
• Spanish: aserción (es) f

References

• “assertion”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “assertion”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Restainos, airstones, arsonites, asterions, notarises, rai stones, reasonist, senoritas, señoritas

French

Etymology

From Latin assertiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.sɛʁ.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

assertion f (plural assertions)

1. assertion

Related terms

• asserter
• assertif
• assertivement
• assertoire

Further reading

• “assertion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.