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Testimony vs Evidence - What's the difference?

testimony | evidence |

In lang=en terms the difference between testimony and evidence

is that testimony is statements made by a witness in court while evidence is anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.

As a verb evidence is

to provide evidence for, or suggest the truth of.

testimony

Alternative forms

* testimonie (obsolete)

Noun

(testimonies)
  • (legal) statements made by a witness in court.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , date = 21 August 2012 , first = Ed , last = Pilkington , title = Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , newspaper = The Guardian , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/death-penalty-trial-reggie-clemons?newsfeed=true , page = , passage = The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991. }}
  • An account of first-hand experience.
  • * Milton
  • [Thou] for the testimony of truth, hast borne / Universal reproach.
  • In a church service, a personal account, such as of one's conversion.
  • Witness; evidence; proof of some fact.
  • * Bible Mark vi. 11
  • When ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.

    Derived terms

    * compel testimony * testimonial

    evidence

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • Facts or observations presented in support of an assertion.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=
  • , volume=100, issue=2, page=106, magazine=(w) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence , for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
  • (legal) Anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2004, date=April 15, work=The Scotsman
  • , title= Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer , passage=For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year. }}
  • One who bears witness.
  • * Sir (Walter Scott)
  • infamous and perjured evidences

    Derived terms

    * anecdotal evidence * circumstantial evidence * evidence-based medicine * hearsay evidence

    Derived terms

    * after-discovered evidence * clear and convincing evidence * demurrer to evidence * preponderance of evidence, preponderance of the evidence * self-evidence

    Verb

    (evidenc)
  • To provide evidence for, or suggest the truth of.
  • She was furious, as evidenced by her slamming the door.