test

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A set of questions or tasks used to measure someone's knowledge or skill.

   I always hated doing maths tests at school.

2. 2
   verb

   To check someone's knowledge or skill with questions or tasks.

   The teacher tests us every week.

3. 3
   noun

   An act of trying something to find out how good or safe it is.

   The new brakes passed every safety test.

4. 4
   verb

   To try something out to find out whether it works.

   Engineers tested the engine before the launch.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Test originally denoted a cupel, the shallow, porous vessel used in medieval times to refine or test gold or silver. It comes from Latin testu or testum, meaning “earthen pot”; the vessel’s function also lies behind phrases such as put to the test and stand the test.

From Middle English test, teste, from Old French test, teste (“an earthen vessel, especially a pot in which metals were tried”), from Latin testum (“the lid of an earthen vessel, an earthen vessel, an earthen pot”), from *terstus, past participle of the root *tersa (“dry land”). See terra, thirst. The examination sense came via metaphor of the metallurgical sense - the way a metallurgist puts to the test his gold, a teacher may put to the test their students' knowledge.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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