How do you spell the word meaning to approve?

The correct spelling of the word meaning to approve or confirm is Ratify: r-a-t-i-f-y, six letters, with the ending -ify (one f, ending in y). The word comes from the Latin ratificare, from ratus (thought or fixed) plus -ficare (to make), and reached English through Old French. The most common spelling errors are doubling the t (Rattify), substituting the ending (Ratifie), or missing the i (Ratfy).

The verb conjugates as ratify, ratifies (third-person singular present), ratified (past tense), ratifying (present participle), and the noun form is ratification. On the USCIS writing test sentences containing ratify or its forms may include "States ratify amendments," "The Constitution was ratified in 1788," or "Two-thirds of senators ratify treaties."

In U.S. constitutional law the verb ratify appears in three contexts: ratification of the original Constitution by the states (Article VII required nine of thirteen, with Delaware first on December 7, 1787, and New Hampshire ninth on June 21, 1788); ratification of constitutional amendments by three-fourths of the states under Article V (currently 38 of 50); and ratification of treaties by a two-thirds vote of the Senate under Article II, section 2, clause 2. The civics test includes questions about the amendment process and the Senate's role in approving treaties.

The verb has remained in active use in U.S. constitutional practice. The most recent ratification of a constitutional amendment occurred in 1992 when the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, originally proposed in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights package, was ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states more than two centuries after its proposal.