To verify something means to check that it's true, accurate, or authentic. When a teacher verifies your answer on a math problem, she's making sure you got it right. When a scientist verifies experimental results, he's confirming they're reliable by testing them again. When you verify that you locked the front door, you're double-checking to make sure it's actually locked.

Verification is the act of verifying. In everyday life, verification happens constantly: a librarian scans your card to verify your identity, a referee checks the rulebook to verify whether a play was legal, or you verify your friend's phone number before adding it to your contacts.

In science and research, verification is especially important. Scientists don't just trust that an experiment worked once. They verify results by repeating tests multiple times, and other scientists verify findings by running their own independent experiments. This careful verification is how we know which scientific claims we can trust.

When you verify something, you're establishing its truth. You might hear related words like verifiable (something that can be checked and proven) or veracity (truthfulness). Verification transforms “someone said so” into “we've checked and confirmed it's true.”