judgment

English

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Judgment

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• judgement (Commonwealth)
• iugement, iudgement, iudgment, iudgemente, iudgmente (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English juggement, borrowed from Old French jugement, from Late Latin iūdicāmentum, from Latin iūdicō. Displaced native doom.

Morphologically judge +‎ -ment

Pronunciation

• enPR: jŭj'mənt, IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

judgment (countable and uncountable, plural judgments)

1. The act of judging.
   • 1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 376:

     The key to the situation was judgment of the role the railways could play in modern times.

2. The power or faculty of performing such operations; especially, when unqualified, the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely

   a man of judgment / a man of good judgment

   a politician without judgment

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Hermia. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. Theseus. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 72:2:

     He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment.

   • 1840, Lewis Rose, chapter I, in An Humble Attempt to Put an End to the Present Divisions in the Church of Scotland, and to Promote Her Usefulness. ‎, Glasgow: George Gallie, →OCLC, page 8:

     [T]he person presented shall be tried and examined by the judgment of learned men of the church; […]

3. The conclusion or result of judging; an opinion; a decision.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     She in my judgment was as fair as you.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 14”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
     And yet methinks I have astronomy […]

4. (law) The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. , 2nd edition, London: Francis Ashe , →OCLC:

     In judgments between the Rich and the Poor: it is not to be considered what the poor man needs, but what is his own

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Most heartily I do beseech the court To give the judgment.

5. (theology) The final award; the last sentence.

Usage notes

See Judgment: Spelling for discussion of spelling usage of judgment versus judgement. Briefly, the form without the -e is preferred in American English, and in law globally, while the form with the -e is preferred in non-legal use in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South African English. Google Ngram search for the judgment in the British corpus suggests judgment is at least as common in British English as judgement.

Like abridgment, acknowledgment, and lodgment, judgment is sometimes written with ‘British’ spellings in American English, as judgement (respectively, abridgement, acknowledgement, and lodgement).

The British spelling preserves the rule that G can only be soft while preceding an E, I, or Y.

Common collocations include pass judgment, make a judgment and "in one's judgment".

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “judgment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “judgment”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• judgment, judgement at Google Ngram Viewer