judgement
noun
Simple meaning
The capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and to draw sound conclusions.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
juhjmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʒʌdʒmənt
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
The act of judging or assessing a person or situation or event
An opinion formed by judging something
The capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and to draw sound conclusions
The cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions
The mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations
The legal document stating the reasons for a judicial decision
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of judging or assessing a person or situation or event
Used this way, judgement is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- 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
- Technical/specialist writing
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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An opinion formed by judging something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A judgment rendered against an individual (or corporation) for the payment of money damages.
A judgment pronounced on the status of some particular subject or property or thing (as opposed to one pronounced on persons).
A judgment disposing of the matter without a trial.
Judgment rendered through analysis and adjudication of the factual issues presented.
A judgment rendered by the court prior to a verdict because no material issue of fact exists and one party or the other is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.
A judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff when the defendant defaults (fails to appear in court).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: judging or assessing a person
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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.