Did we build the device according to its own specification, and separately: did we build the device users actually need?
These sound close enough to be interchangeable, and the words get used loosely outside regulated engineering — but under design controls, they're two structurally different questions with two structurally different answers. Design verification asks whether the device, as built, conforms to its own design inputs — the specifications the design team wrote down. It's an objective, testable, internally-referenced question: does output X meet spec X. Design validation asks a different, externally-referenced question: does the device, under actual or simulated use conditions, meet the user needs and intended use it was meant to serve — confirmed through methods like simulated-use and human factors testing, not just spec comparison.