police court
noun
Simple meaning
A court that has power to prosecute for minor offenses and to bind over for trial in a superior court anyone accused of serious offenses.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhleeskawrtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pəˈlisˈkɔɹt
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 court that has power to prosecute for minor offenses and to bind over for trial in a superior court anyone accused of serious offenses
historical in UKlaw
A court of justice for trying minor criminal cases brought before it by the police, often in summary proceedings.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A court that has power to prosecute for minor offenses and to bind over for trial in a superior court anyone accused of serious offenses
Used this way, police court is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. 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
- Mild
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic 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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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.