Ascertain

Definition: Ascertain

Ascertain

Verb

1. After a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study; "find the product of two numbers"; "The physicist who found the elusive particle won the Nobel Prize".

2. Be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something; "He verified that the valves were closed"; "See that the curtains are closed"; "control the quality of the product".

3. Find out, learn, or determine with certainty, usually by making an inquiry or other effort; "I want to see whether she speaks French"; "See whether it works"; "find out if he speaks Russian"; "Check whether the train leaves on time".

4. Learn or discover with certainty.

Date "ascertain" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Note: Ascertain \As`cer*tain"\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Ascertained; present participle verb or noun Ascertaining.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Ascertain

Synonyms: assure (v), check (v), control (v), determine (v), ensure (v), find (v), find out (v), insure (v), learn (v), see (v), see to it (v), watch (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Direction	Ascertain one's direction; Noun: s'orienter, see which way the wind blows; box the compass; take the air line.
Judgment	Verb: judge, conclude; come to a conclusion, draw a conclusion, arrive at a conclusion; ascertain, determine, make up one's mind.
Stability	Settle, establish, stablish, ascertain, fix, set, stabilitate; retain, keep hold; make good, make sure; fasten; (join); set on its legs, float; perpetuate.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	While there was a chance, I was bound legally and morally to ascertain the Captain's status. (Star Trek; writing credit: Walter Black; William Hamilton)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Encounters in Glaucoma Research 3 - How to ascertain progression and outcome (reference) Letters to Richard Heber, Esq., M.P., containing critical remarks on the series of novels beginning with "Waverley", and an attempt to ascertain their author (reference) People as pedestrians : a survey to ascertain how much adults go out and about on foot, carried out on behalf of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (reference) Report of an expedition to ascertain the position of the 141st degree of east longitude being the boundary line between New South Wales & South Australia : by order of His Excellency Sir George Gipps, Knight, &c., &c., &c., Governor and Captain General of (reference) Trends and needs in home management; an analytical study of home management in higher institutions in order to ascertain trends and to formulate policies (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The candidate of many parties. A phrenological examination to ascertain what his political principles are. Credit: Library of Congress.		Grading seed which farmer has brought to office of Border King co-op seed exchange at Williams, Minnesota. This test is to ascertain purity and quality of seed before the price is set on it. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Scarlet Letter	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	She felt a morbid desire to ascertain the point.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	If you would ascertain at once what degree of ugliness the fact may reach, seen in the distance of the centuries, look at Machiavel.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Studies are also needed to ascertain the type and extent of training of clinicians necessary for effective intervention. (references)
		Every attempt should be made to ascertain the level of understanding and cultural background of the person being tested. (references)
		The next step is to ascertain what happens when the protein is missing or distorted and how the faulty protein causes disease. (references)
Business		Exporters should ascertain whether their product requires import certification before shipping. (references)
		The national government, hospitals and cancer foundations heavily rely upon death certificates in order to ascertain relevant information. (references)
		The overseas study law liberalization, having taken effect this September, spurred on a sudden demand for study abroad fairs, particularly for parents eager to ascertain information for their children. (references)
Civil Liberties	Cote d'Ivoire	The Interior Ministry investigates the backgrounds of the founding members to ascertain that the group has no politically subversive purpose. (references)
	Greece	In July the UNHCR visited the Greek-Turkish land border (a military zone) to ascertain whether a group of 250 persons from various African countries were detained there. (references)
	Cameroon	The next day, Mana presented himself at the Gendarmerie for questioning and was detained for 4 days while the authorities attempted to ascertain the name of Mana's confidential source. (references)
Economic History	Belgium	A search is required to ascertain the existence of a similar trademark for the same category of product. (references)
	Argentina	Specific federal or state agencies and private corporations should be contacted to ascertain specific project requirements. (references)
	Pakistan	The exporter should also be sure to ascertain from the importer the precise number of copies of each document that will be required. (references)
Human Rights	Barbados	The Government allows private groups to visit prisons to ascertain conditions. (references)
	Sri Lanka	The exact size of these militias is impossible to ascertain, but they probably total fewer than 2,000 persons. (references)
	Israel and the occupied territories	The ICRC attempted to pass medication and messages to Tannenbaum, but was unable to ascertain whether he received the packages. (references)
Minorities	Liberia	The number of such killings is difficult to ascertain, since police often describe deaths as accidents even when body parts have been removed. (references)
	Albania	Minority leaders cite the Government's unwillingness to recognize the existence of ethnic Greek towns, such as Himara, that are not considered part of communist-era "minority zones"; to utilize Greek on official documents and on public signs in ethnic Greek areas; to address effectively crimes committed against ethnic Greeks, particularly allegations that communal property is being taken illegally by means of fraudulent documents and in some cases with complicity of the courts; to ascertain the size of the ethnic Greek population; and to include a higher number of ethnic Greeks in public administration. (references)
Political Economy	PORTUGAL	The group collaborated with the ILO in 1998 and 1999 in a first of its kind survey to try to ascertain the extent of child labor in Portugal. (references)
Trade	Poland	U.S. exporters should ascertain whether their product requires import certification before shipping. (references)
Travel	Indonesia	This can make it difficult for a Westerner to ascertain exactly how a business proposal is being received. (references)
	Saudi Arabia	A document and/or a participation agreement is needed to ascertain that the owner of the goods is officially participating in a trade show. (references)
Women	Mexico	The NWI and the National Statistics Institute traced gender-specific statistics to ascertain more accurately the status of women. (references)
	Russia	Hospitals, crisis centers, and members of the medical profession provide assistance to women who have been assaulted; however, to avoid spending long periods of time in court, some doctors are reluctant to ascertain the details of a sexual assault or collect physical evidence. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with. From the Latin mens, a fact unknown to that honest shoe-seller, who, observing that his learned competitor over the way had displayed the motto "Mens conscia recti," emblazoned his own front with the words "Men's, women's and children's conscia recti."
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Washington	1789-1797	I will only add that it will afford me a heart-felt satisfaction to concur in such further measures as will ascertain to our country the prospect of a speedy extinguishment of the debt.
John Adams	1797-1801	Domingo might safely be renewed, I took such steps as seemed to me expedient to ascertain that point.
James Madison	1809-1817	That article which leaves it in the power of the legislature to ascertain its own emolument is one to which I allude.
John Quincy Adams	1825-1829	Measures have been taken to ascertain the state of the facts more correctly by the employment of a special agent to visit the spot where the alleged outrages have occurred, the result of those inquiries, when received, will be transmitted to Congress.
Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	To ascertain in all cases whether the original claimant is living and this by actual personal inspection.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Ascertain" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 92.36% of the time. "Ascertain" is used about 536 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	92.36%	495	12,127
Lexical Verb (base form)	7.08%	38	55,818
Noun (singular)	0.56%	3	202,518
Total	100.00%	536	N/A

Expressions using "ascertain": ascertain in advance ♦ ascertain what happened. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "ascertain"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		përcaktoj (article, assign, condition, define, design, designate, destine, determine, elect, evaluate, stipulate), konstatoj (find, notice, state), gjej (assure, be, be present, catch, come across, dig up, discover, distil, distill, divine, fetch, figure out, find, find out, get, guess, hit, hunt down, hunt out, hunt up, look out, meet with, obtain, pick out, procure, root out, scare up, search out, trace). (various references)

Arabic		‏تحقق (be realized, check, come true, enquire, fruition, materialize). (various references)

Bulgarian		установявам (determine, establish, find, ground, institute, plant, prescribe, seal, vindicate), уверявам се (be convinced). (various references)

Chinese		查知 (Ascertained, Ascertaining). (various references)

Czech		zjistit (average, chase up, detect, determine, elicit, establish, find, find out, read, tell), dopátrat. (various references)

Danish		kontrollere skade (to ascertain damage), for at orientere sig om de faktiske forhold (to ascertain the facts of the situation), blindhaerdning for at fastlaegge kernestyrken (blank harden to ascertain the strength of the core). (various references)

Dutch		vaststellen (affix, attach, determine, establish, fasten, fix, make fast, secure, take note), constateren (establish, take note), bevinden (establish, find, take note). (various references)

Esperanto		konstati (establish, take note). (various references)

Faeroese		staðfesta (acknowledge, confirm, corroborate, establish, take note), sanna (establish, take note). (various references)

Finnish		todeta (establish, find, identify, note, take note, verify). (various references)

French		constater. (various references)

German		feststellen (assess, detect, determine, diagnose, discover, establish, find, find out, lock, lock fast, observe, plot, realize, tell, to ascertain, to determine, to realise), ermitteln (detect, determine, establish, estimate, find, investigate, locate, snap, to ascertain, to detect, trace). (various references)

Greek		διαπιστώνω (establish, note). (various references)

Hebrew		לו�"א (authenticate, certify, check up on, confirm, ensure, make certain, make sure, verify), לאמת (attest, authenticate, corroborate, prove true, substantiate, validate, verify), ל�"כיר (find out, know, make out, realize, recognize, spot, tell, understand), ל�"סתבר (be evident, become clear). (various references)

Hungarian		tisztáz (clear up, copy, to clarify, to clear up, to demystify, to disclose the truth of a matter, to disentangle, to elicit, to elucidate, to exculpate, to exonerate, to get sg right, to purify, to sex, to solve, to straighten out, to throw light on, try out), rögzít (fasten, fix, immobilize, stabilize, tie down, to anchor, to clog, to dung, to engrain, to ingrain, to lock, to make fast, to record, to secure, to tackle, to tie), megtud (come to know, gather, hear, learn, to ascertain, to come to know, to find out), meghatároz (assign, define, determine, fix, limit, locate, specify, to allocate, to appoint, to assign, to circumscribe, to define, to determine, to peg down, to specify, to spell out, to stipulate), meggyõzõdik, megállapít (assess, determine, diagnose, diagnosticate, identify, pre-ordain, to allocate, to appoint, to assess, to determine, to diagnose, to lay down general rules, to premise, to quote, to set out, to state, to tax, to time), kipuhatol (to feel out), kiderít (bring to light, detect, to ascertain, to clear up, to elicit, to find out, to nose out). (various references)

Indonesian		menetapkan (enact, enactive). (various references)

Italian		constatare (establish, note, observe, take, take note, witness), accertare (assess, detect, locate, snap). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		聞き糺す (to ascertain, to confirm, to make sure of, to verify), 質す (to ascertain, to ask a person about, to verify), 裏問う (to ascertain a person's innermost feelings), 見定める (to ascertain, to confirm, to grasp, to make sure of), 見届ける (to ascertain, to assure oneself of, to make sure of, to see with one's own eyes), 突き止める (to ascertain, to find out, to locate, to make sure), 確かめる (to ascertain), 未届ける (to ascertain, to assure oneself of, to make sure of, to see with one's own eyes). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		たしかめる (to ascertain), た� す (to adjust, to amend, to ascertain, to ask a person about, to correct, to query, to redress, to reform, to straighten, to verify), ききた� す (to ascertain, to confirm, to draw, to make sure of, to verify), うらどう (to ascertain a person's innermost feelings), つきとめる (to ascertain, to find out, to locate, to make sure), みさ� める (to ascertain, to confirm, to grasp, to make sure of), みとどける (to ascertain, to assure oneself of, to make sure of, to see with one's own eyes). (various references)

Korean		판명하십시�". (various references)

Manx		feddyn magh (ascertainment, determine, dig out, discover, discovery, elicit, invent, invention, seek out). (various references)

Norwegian		finne ut. (various references)

Papiamen		konstatá (establish, take note). (various references)

Pig Latin		ascertainay

Polish		stwierdzać, konstatować. (various references)

Portuguese		verificar (check, confirm, control, establish, examine, find, hold true, inspect, muster, overhaul, reconnoiter, reconnoitre, see, take note, test, to verify, verify). (various references)

Romanian		constata (detect, discover, establish, find, observe, record, see, state, take note). (various references)

Russian		устанавливать (ascertained, collocate, determine, emplace, establish, fix, install, posit, put, puts, set, set up, slated, slates). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		konstatovati, doznati (find out, learn, search), dokučiti (comprehend, fathom, get the hang, grasp). (various references)

Spanish		averiguar (find out, get at, inquire, learn, look up, trace back), indagar (check, examine, inquire, inquire into, investigate, search), comprobar (check, check up on, make sure of, prove, substantiate, test, test out, verify), cerciorarse (make sure). (various references)

Swedish		förvissa sig om (make sure of). (various references)

Thai		สืบให้แน่ใจ. (various references)

Turkish		aslını öğrenmek, anlamak (absorb, accept, appreciate, apprehend, be knowledgeable about, be up to, catch, catch on, click, compass, comprehend, conceive, cotton on to, dawn on, deduce, dig, discern, discover, distinguish, fathom, feel, figure out, get, get a grip, get a grip on, get the message, grasp, grip, latch on to, make of, pick out, read, realize, rumble, savvy, see, see into, seize, sense, sum up, take in, twig, understand, wake to, waken, work out), soruşturmak (check out, check up, enquire, inquire, inquire into, investigate, make inquiries, probe, verify), doğrusunu öğrenmek, bulmak (clear up, cogitate, contrive, devise, discover, find, go for, happen on, happen upon, hit, invent, meet, obtain, procure, provide with, reach, reason, strike, strike out, study out, turn up), öğrenmek (come to know, elicit, get to know, get wise to, hear, imbibe, inform oneself of smth., learn, make acquainted with, make oneself acquainted with, master, school oneself to, study, wise up to, wit). (various references)

Ukrainian		установлювати (assign, lay, plant, set, state), з'ясовувати (beat out, clarify, establish, settle), переконуватися (find). (various references)

Welsh		mynnu gwybod, cael gwybod. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	comperio, experior, reperio, rescisset, rescivit. (various references)
Old French	900-1400	acertener. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "ascertain": ascertainable, ascertained, ascertaining, ascertainment, ascertainments, ascertains. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Ascertain" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abcertain, abscertain, accertain, acertain, ascertainm, ascertian, ascortain, asertain, Aspertini, assertain, Assirati. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "ascertain" (pronounced a'sertā"n)
4	-er t ā" n	entertain, pertain.
3	-t ā" n	abstain, attain, butane, contain, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, stain, sustain.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: craniates, sectarian.
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-e-i-n-r-s-t"
	-1 letter: acarines, antisera, canaries, canister, carinate, caterans, ceratins, cesarian, cisterna, craniate, creatins, estancia, ratanies, scantier, seatrain, tacrines.
	-2 letters: acarine, acetins, acrasin, anestri, antiars, anticar, antsier, arcsine, aristae, arnicas, arsenic, artisan, asteria, atresia, canters, carates, carinae, carinas, caritas, carnets, carnies, catenas, cateran, ceratin, certain, cineast, cistern, creatin, cretins, cristae, entasia, narcist, nastier, nectars, raciest.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-e-i-n-r-s-t"
	+1 letter: anticaries, ascertains, catenaries, discarnate, incarnates, sectarians, tarriances.
	+2 letters: abreactions, aeronautics, anthracites, ascertained, cantatrices, cantharides, caretakings, carnalities, carnallites, catarrhines, ceratopsian, deracinates, lacerations, macerations, pancreatins, reacquaints, sanctuaries, tetracaines, vacationers.
	+3 letters: altercations, anacreontics, antipiracies, ascertaining, bicarbonates, candidatures, cardinalates, carminatives, centenarians, ceratopsians, declarations, demarcations, emancipators, eradications, fractionates, incarcerates, interactants, intercalates, intercoastal, nonsectarian, pancreatitis, rarefactions, ratiocinates, recantations, reclamations, reescalating, reescalation, reincarnates, revaccinates, scatteration, scatterbrain, sectarianism, sectarianize, tradescantia, transoceanic.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.