evidence

Etymology

From Middle English evidence, from Old French [Term?], from Latin evidentia (“clearness, in Late Latin a proof”), from evidens (“clear, evident”); see evident.

noun

1. Facts or observations presented in support of an assertion.
   There is no evidence that anyone was here earlier.
   We have enough cold hard evidence in that presentation which will make a world of pain for our parasitic friends at Antarctica.
   We find material evidences of magical practices in the European caves of the Palæolithic age[.] 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 18
   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. 2012-03, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106
2. (law) Anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.
   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. April 15, 2004, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman
3. One who bears witness.
4. A body of objectively verifiable facts that are positively indicative of, and/or exclusively concordant with, that one conclusion over any other.

verb

1. (transitive) To provide evidence for, or suggest the truth of.
   She was furious, as evidenced by her slamming the door.
   That he was a great locomotive engineer, it would be foolish to deny or even to qualify; that he was also extremely pig-headed is fairly evidenced by David Joy, who in his 'Diaries' said that Stroudley always wanted his way 'to the last nut and bolt.' 1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234
   Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost. 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251
   "And I think we can do better, and we have to do better, because we need to evidence why public ownership of the railways is going to work for the people who use it. April 6 2022, Conrad Landin, “ScotRail in the public eye...”, in RAIL, number 954, page 39