A richly layered noun that moves from the act of testing through to its outcome. In Romans 5:4, Paul traces a chain: tribulation produces endurance, and endurance produces dokime — a proven, battle-tested character. Elsewhere it denotes the concrete proof or evidence that validates a claim, as when Paul seeks 'proof of your obedience' (2 Cor 2:9). It can also name the trial itself, as in the Macedonian churches' 'great testing of affliction' (2 Cor 8:2). Spanish and French both render all three senses with a single word ('prueba,' 'epreuve'), showing how tightly the act of testing and the quality it produces are bound together.