印证 means 'to verify' or 'to corroborate' — to confirm the truth or accuracy of something by providing supporting evidence or facts. The character 印 (yìn) originally means 'seal' or 'stamp', suggesting an act of authenticating or marking something as genuine; 证 (zhèng) means 'evidence', 'proof', or 'to prove'. Together, 印证 conveys the idea of 'stamping with proof' — lending authoritative confirmation to a claim, theory, observation, or hypothesis.

This verb is commonly used in formal, academic, journalistic, and professional contexts — especially when research findings, test results, historical records, or clinical data align with and strengthen prior assumptions or theories. It often appears in written Chinese more than in casual speech and typically follows subjects like data, studies, experiments, or personal experience. While it can be transitive (taking a direct object), it’s frequently used with complements indicating what is being verified (e.g., '印证了这一观点').