Definition of: testimony

(tes′tə·mō′nē) noun plural ·nies
1. A statement or affirmation of a fact, as before a court; evidence; proof.
2. The aggregate of proof offered in a case.
3. The act of testifying; attestation.
4. Public declaration regarding some experience.
5. The Decalog; the Old Testament Scriptures. [<L testimonium <testis a witness]
—tes′ti·mo′nied Obs. adjective Synonyms: affidavit, affirmation, attestation, deposition, proof, witness. Testimony, in legal as well as in common use, denotes the statements of witnesses. Deposition and affidavit denote testimony reduced to writing. The deposition differs from the affidavit in that the latter is voluntary and without cross–examination, while the former is made under interrogatories and subject to cross–examination. Evidence is a broader term, including the testimony of witnesses and all facts of every kind that tend to prove a thing true; we have the testimony of a traveler that a fugitive passed this way; his footprints in the sand are additional evidence of the fact. Compare PROOF.