Confirm - conform

Don't confuse the two verbs confirm and conform, nor the related words. Because the two words are not far from each other in meaning and some of the contexts in which they are used, writers have sometimes used when when they mean the other, and typographical errors are not impossible.

• 'To confirm' is 'to make firm', or more usually 'to ratify', 'to support or strengthen [a belief, opinion or a fact]'; 'to assert or state authoritatively that [a fact sa statement or quotation, etc] is so'.

In religion, Christians may be confirmed in their faith in the rite of Confirmation.

• 'To conform', which was originally mostly a transitive verb meaning 't make[an artefact] in the design of pattern' is 'to