corroborator

Corroborator is a noun referring to a person or thing that corroborates or reinforces a statement, claim, or finding. In common usage, it denotes an element that provides additional support beyond what has already been presented.

In law, a corroborator is a witness or document that strengthens another witness’s testimony by offering independent confirmation. Some legal systems require corroboration for certain charges or types of evidence, while others do not; in any case, corroboration is valued for assessing credibility and reliability. In journalism, corroboration involves independent confirmation from separate sources to verify information, reducing the risk of error or bias.

In science and research, corroboration refers to methods that confirm results through replication, independent measurement, or triangulation of data. A corroborator in this context may be another study, an external dataset, or a different experimental approach that yields consistent findings, thereby increasing confidence in conclusions.

Etymology-wise, corroborator derives from the Latin corroborare, meaning to strengthen or reinforce. The concept emphasizes strengthening an assertion with supplementary evidence rather than proving it in isolation. Limitations include the possibility that corroborating evidence can be flawed, biased, or derived from shared sources, which may still leave uncertainty about the underlying claim.

See also: corroboration, corroborate, corroborative evidence.