[
UK
/ˌæsətˈeɪn/
]
[ US /ˌæsɝˈteɪn/ ]
[ US /ˌæsɝˈteɪn/ ]
VERB
-
be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something
He verified that the valves were closed
control the quality of the product
See that the curtains are closed -
find out, learn, or determine with certainty, usually by making an inquiry or other effort
Check whether the train leaves on time
See whether it works
I want to see whether she speaks French
find out if he speaks Russian -
establish 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 - learn or discover with certainty
How To Use ascertain In A Sentence
- But the initial reason was unascertained and needed further investigation, particularly a toxicology report. Times, Sunday Times
- If you wish to ascertain if a woman be with child, give her hydromel to drink when she is going to sleep, and has not taken supper, and if she be seized with tormina in the belly, she is with child, but otherwise she is not pregnant. Aphorisms
- You can put the 'blackie' up in some quarter of the house where he can move about at will without disturbing any of your own servants, and can get in and out at all hours; he will be useful, you know, in prowling about the grounds at night and ascertaining if the lady really does go to bed when she retires to her room. Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces
- Most data sets utilized in the study of hereditary diseases are constructed around probands, making correction for ascertainment bias necessary; this set of data is no exception.
- Having obtained the metacentric height, reference to a diagram will at once show the whole range of stability; and this being ascertained at each loading, the stowage of the cargo can be so adjusted as to avoid excessive stiffness in the one hand and dangerous tenderness on the other. Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883
- It was a long shot but might be worth the effort, at least to ascertain the facts. Broken Lives
- Take time to ascertain what services your bank is providing, and at what cost.
- Comparative genetic analysis of the viral DNA from each isolate would be required to definitively ascertain the conspecificity of these viruses.
- In ordinary life it is rare indeed for people to form their beliefs by a process of logical deduction from facts ascertained by a rigorous search for all available evidence and a judicious assessment of its probative value.
- From this latter practice arose their name — CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement. The Mysteries of Udolpho