Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To discover with certainty, as through examination or experimentation. synonym: discover.
  • transitive verb Archaic To make certain, definite, and precise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make certain; determine; define or reduce to precision by removing doubt, obscurity, or ambiguity; establish; prove.
  • To find out by trial, examination, or experiment, so as to know as certain; acquire an accurate knowledge of: as, to ascertain the weight of a commodity or the purity of a metal.
  • To make sure of; insure.
  • To make certain or sure; certify; assure; inform.
  • To establish with certainty; render invariable, or not subject to caprice; fix.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To render (a person) certain; to cause to feel certain; to make confident; to assure; to apprise.
  • transitive verb Archaic To make (a thing) certain to the mind; to free from obscurity, doubt, or change; to make sure of; to fix; to determine.
  • transitive verb To find out or learn for a certainty, by trial, examination, or experiment; to get to know.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To find out definitely; to discover or establish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb find out, learn, or determine with certainty, usually by making an inquiry or other effort
  • verb establish after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study
  • verb be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something
  • verb learn or discover with certainty

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English acertainen, to inform, from Old French acertener, ascertain- : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + certain, certain; see certain.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French acertener, from (a- ("to, towards") + certener ("make sure of"), from the adjective certain.

Support

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Examples

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

  • I was able to ascertain from the News forum that there's at least one Telcel shop in Alamos.

    Telcel Sim card..... 2009

Comments

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  • People never know how to pronounce this word. ASS SIR TAIN

    December 30, 2006

  • pta lagana, jaan lena

    August 5, 2009

  • my test run

    August 5, 2009

  • "Under the spell of the river, Covenant became slowly more conscious of the reassuring solidity of the Land. It was not an intangible dreamscape; it was concrete, susceptible to ascertainment."

    Lord Foul's Bane

    July 29, 2012