bear witness

verb

"bear-witness" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bear witness” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To deliver a testimony, especially as witness

Corpus desk

Index EN-bear-witness · bear witness · English

bear witness · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for bear witness
PropertyValue
Headwordbear witness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “bear witness” in English

bear witnessranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bear witness is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

bear witness has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is bear witness, spelled B-E-A-R- -W-I-T-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    To deliver a testimony, especially as witness
  2. 2
    To prove, demonstrate

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bear witness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He hesitated to bear witness against them in court for fear of reprisals by the felons' accomplices
  2. The dubious state of the whole society bears witness of years of misrule

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bear witness"?
"bear witness" is spelled B-E-A-R- -W-I-T-N-E-S-S.
What does "bear witness" mean?
As a verb, "bear witness" means: To deliver a testimony, especially as witness
What language does "bear witness" come from?
"bear witness" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list