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

In a court hearing in December 2025, Bush's legal team tried to persuade the judge to throw his case out.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

A federal court judge ordered sweeping changes at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Southern California two weeks ago.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

Prospective buyers often judge a home based on how the exterior looks, he noted.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026

It was forced to act after a federal judge slammed the administration's sloppy legal work and found it violated protections granted to journalists and their sources.

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

“I have never seen him before,” he told the judge.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Farage said he took this decision as the "people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions".

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

The surge of cases in Houston turned Jones and Isgur into two of the nation’s busiest bankruptcy judges.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

“To focus on federal judges and courtroom lawyers is to miss much of the story—and probably the most important part,” wrote Cole.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

In such cases there is a standard of care in product design that judges or juries can use to make a ruling, Tokson continued.

From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026

There was applause from the judges, the other teams who were watching, and most of all from the team standing behind her.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

Lastly, the stance of monetary policy should be judged not simply by the level of real rates.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026

The events celebrate farming, rural life and local food and feature competitions where prize livestock is put on show and judged.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

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 Trojan War would have ended in an honorable peace, leaving both sides unconquered, if it had not been for her hatred of a Trojan who had judged another goddess lovelier than she.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Schools and districts need a standard for judging any discipline policy—one that asks what the misbehavior is accomplishing for the child, and whether the school’s response changes it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 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

"I am judging him by what he did as president."

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

"Investors are not judging the last quarter; they are judging whether the next several quarters can still exceed an earnings curve that has already been pulled almost vertically higher."

From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026

On the third bus, a man boarded with an open cardboard container of, judging by the aroma, Chinese food.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Related Words

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