judge

American  

[juhj] / dʒʌdʒ /

noun

judges plural

1. a public officer authorized to hear and decide cases in a court of law; a magistrate charged with the administration of justice.

   Synonyms:

   justice

2. a person appointed to decide in any competition, contest, or matter at issue; authorized arbiter.

   the judges of a beauty contest.

   Synonyms:

   arbitrator

3. a person qualified to pass a critical judgment.

   a good judge of horses.

   Synonyms:

   critic, connoisseur

4. an administrative head of Israel in the period between the death of Joshua and the accession to the throne by Saul.

5. (especially in rural areas) a county official with supervisory duties, often employed part-time or on an honorary basis.

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verb (used with object)

judges, present (3rd person singular) judged, past participle, past judging present participle

1. to pass legal judgment on; pass sentence on (a person).

   The court judged him guilty.

2. to hear evidence or legal arguments in (a case) in order to pass judgment; adjudicate; try.

   The Supreme Court is judging that case.

3. to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically.

   You can't judge a book by its cover.

4. to decide or settle authoritatively; adjudge.

   The censor judged the book obscene and forbade its sale.

5. to infer, think, or hold as an opinion; conclude about or assess.

   He judged her to be correct.

   Synonyms:

   regard, consider, conceive

6. to make a careful guess about; estimate.

   We judged the distance to be about four miles.

7. (of the ancient Hebrew judges) to govern.

verb (used without object)

judges, present (3rd person singular) judged, past participle, past judging present participle

1. to act as a judge; pass judgment.

   No one would judge between us.

   Synonyms:

   adjudicate, adjudge

2. to form an opinion or estimate.

   I have heard the evidence and will judge accordingly.

3. to make a mental judgment.

judge British  

/ dʒʌdʒ /

noun

1. a public official with authority to hear cases in a court of law and pronounce judgment upon them Compare magistrate justice justice

2. a person who is appointed to determine the result of contests or competitions

3. a person qualified to comment critically

   a good judge of antiques

4. a leader of the peoples of Israel from Joshua's death to the accession of Saul

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verb

1. to hear and decide upon (a case at law)

2. (tr) to pass judgment on; sentence

3. (when tr, may take a clause as object or an infinitive) to decide or deem (something) after inquiry or deliberation

4. to determine the result of (a contest or competition)

5. to appraise (something) critically

6. (tr; takes a clause as object) to believe (something) to be the case; suspect

judge Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing judge

• judgment
• sober as a judge

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Synonym Usage

Judge, referee, umpire refer to one who is entrusted with decisions affecting others. Judge, in its legal and other uses, implies particularly that one has qualifications and authority for giving decisions in matters at issue: a judge appointed to the Supreme Court; a judge in the pie competition. A referee usually examines and reports on the merits of a case as an aid to a court. An umpire gives the final ruling when arbitrators of a case disagree.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• judger
  noun
• judgeship
  noun
• subjudge
  noun
• subjudgeship
  noun
• underjudge
  noun
• rejudge
  verb
• underjudge
  verb (used with object)
• judgeable
  adjective
• judgeless
  adjective
• judgelike
  adjective
• unjudgeable
  adjective
• unjudged
  adjective
• unjudgelike
  adjective
• well-judged
  adjective
• judgingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• judges
  plural

Participles

• judging
  present
• judged
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• judge
  simple
• judges
  simple
• have judged
  perfect
• has judged
  perfect
• am judging
  progressive
• are judging
  progressive
• is judging
  progressive
• have been judging
  perfect progressive
• has been judging
  perfect progressive

Past

• judged
  simple
• had judged
  perfect
• was judging
  progressive
• were judging
  progressive
• had been judging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will judge
  simple
• will have judged
  perfect
• will be judging
  progressive
• will have been judging
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of judge

First recorded in 1175–1225; (verb) Middle English jugen, from Anglo-French juger, Old French jugier, from Latin jūdicāre “to judge,” equivalent to jūdic- (stem of jūdex ) “a judge” + -āre infinitive suffix; (noun) Middle English juge, from Old French, from Latin jūdicem, accusative of jūdex

Explanation

To judge is to form your own opinion. The critics didn't think much of the movie, but you decided to judge for yourself. Now you can't get your money back. A person who judges, especially for a living, is known as a judge. To this day, you believe the judges cheated you out of the gold medal for figure skating because they didn't like your outfit. If you're wearing handcuffs and a police officer says, “Tell it to the judge,” that's the one in the black robes, not the one that holds up scorecards. Hopefully, this judge will like your outfit.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

judge judges judged judging

A jury convicted him of a misdemeanor anyway, on the theory that a single six-pack sat in plain view, and a judge gave him the statutory minimum: a $1,500 fine and three days in jail.

From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026

On Aug. 6, a judge is scheduled to hear arguments in the case.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

The judge said he expected Strachan to be in custody or under supervision for the rest of his life.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

The judge found the firm had improperly worked with a former Johnson & Johnson lawyer who had inside knowledge of the company’s settlement thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

He turned his attention to the judge and asked, “Is what true, Your Honor?”

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

Citizenship and Immigration Services allows asylum officers to bypass the need to interview certain applicants and instead refer them directly to immigration judges for removal proceedings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

In China, however, ELI hasn’t been training litigators and judges to pursue comparable strategies against the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

"The challenge he faces is that the public judges quickly," political scientist Tony Travers told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

In the 2001 trial, Giaka was to be a "key" witness in the prosecution's case but the four judges described some of his evidence as "at best grossly exaggerated and at worst simply untrue".

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

In fact, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys may not even be aware of the full range of collateral consequences for a felony conviction.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

It is the insistence that public safety be judged by the people who must live with its consequences.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Biology and terrorism experts later reviewed the exchanges for ChatGPT and judged some as deadly accurate, said people familiar with the matter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

The Education Department hasn’t yet calculated the final data against which institutions will be judged, leaving uncertainty on exactly what programs will face consequences.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

But Root also said he was hopeful the team would be judged on the present in terms of results.

From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026

Shadow judged that the latch was probably old and creaky.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

"Previously, no large language model had ever achieved a perfect score under the IMO's official judging process," the firm added, referring to the tech that underpins AI tools like chatbots.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

At the California Institute of the Arts, administrators expressed concern about judging earnings four years after graduation given the nature of the field they are teaching.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

The VAR would merely be judging a foul - as was the case with Martinez - rather than a penalty.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

He was really angry then that people were criticizing and judging a show that hadn’t even aired yet.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

The ghost girl on the trolley must have died a long time ago, judging by her clothes, and yet the old man was still happy to get a message from her.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland

Related Words

• appreciate
• assess
• conclude
• consider
• criticize
• decide
• derive
• determine
• discern
• distinguish
• draw
• evaluate
• examine
• find
• put
• resolve
• review
• try