> independent verification & validation (IV&V)
> A comprehensive review, analysis, and testing, (software and/or hardware) performed by an objective third party to confirm (i.e., verify) that the requirements are correctly defined, and to confirm (i.e., validate) that the system correctly implements the required functionality and security requirements.
In my experience it's more common to use "verify" for the lower-level "conforms to specs" and "validate" for the higher level "are the specs right" but in other areas it might be different.
In other fields (I'm more familiar with medicine), there are "bibles" that serve as a medium or the source of common language between professionals. If you are talking about radiology, then you open Basic Radiology by Chen, Pope and Ott on the designated page, and read the definition. And you know that another radiologist will do the same, and so you both have the same reference point.
In programming, even the basic stuff like variables, functions, types etc. aren't defined universally. Plenty of local environments will offer conflicting definitions (and often the definitions themselves are internally inconsistent).
Unfortunately, bodies like Wikipedia cannot serve as an authoritative source on such questions because instead they record the current state of events. They can't choose which definition to follow if there's no authority respected by the vast majority of programmers.