judge
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A public official whose duty it is to administer the law.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
juhjIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʒʌdʒ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
A person who decides the fate of someone or something that has been called into question.
A person who evaluates something or forms an opinion.
A person officiating at a sports event, a contest, or similar; referee.
The title of a judge.
verb
Pronounce judgment on
Put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
transitive
To sit in judgment on; to pass sentence on (a person or matter).
Form a critical opinion of
“I cannot judge some works of modern art.”
transitive
To form an opinion on; to appraise.
transitive
To have as an opinion; to consider, suppose.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
Used this way, judge is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
- Ethics/values
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use judge
- “She is a good judge of wine.”noun
- “At a boxing match, the decision of the judges is final.”noun
- “A higher power will judge you after you are dead.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
The civil power dealing with law.
A lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses).
An expert of law or someone who researches jurisprudence.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A book of the Old Testament that tells the history of Israel under the leaders known as judges.
The cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An opinion formed by judging something.
The legal document stating the reasons for a judicial decision.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The senior legal advisor to a branch of the military.
An officer assigned to the judge advocate general.
A football official.
Football official who assists the referee by keeping track of the official time during the game.
A football official.
A judge in a trial court.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A gown worn by academics or judges.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.