tahkeed

Tahkeed, or taḥkīd (Arabic تأكيد) is a linguistic and rhetorical term meaning emphasis or confirmation. The noun taḥkīd comes from the Arabic root k-d-d via the verb أكّد, meaning to strengthen or confirm; the form taḥkīd denotes the act or result of making something certain.

In Arabic, taḥkīd is used to convey certainty, reinforce information, or signal importance. It appears in religious, literary, and everyday language. Rhetorical taḥkīd employs several techniques, including the use of emphatic particles such as innā (indeed) to begin a clause, repetition or parallelism, and the use of synonyms or antonyms to reinforce a statement. It can also involve oath or firm assertion, as in phrases like “أقسم بالله أني صادق” (I swear by God that I am truthful).

In modern usage, taḥkīd is common in formal writing, legal language, journalism, and Qur’anic exegesis, where precision and certainty are important. The concept exists in other languages with similar meanings, often transliterated as ta’kīd in Urdu and Hindi, or taḥqīd in Persian-influenced spellings; the meaning remains essentially the same: the act of stressing or confirming.

Note: tahkeed should not be confused with tahqiq (تحقیق), which means investigation or verification, a related but distinct term in Arabic and related languages.