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

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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

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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

The results came hours after a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion for misleading users about its data-privacy practices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

In August, a judge ordered Meta to implement product changes and pay an additional $567 million to the state to fund the treatment and prevention of harms caused by Facebook and Instagram.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

Yet the category includes a remarkably diverse assortment of foods, making it difficult to judge their health effects as a single group.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

“The idea seems to be that wealth doesn’t buy happiness or even, really, wealth, so we shouldn’t judge these people too harshly,” I wrote in 2017.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

Whether that self-serving story was true or not, the judge found in Leah’s favor.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

The UN experts included the special rapporteurs on the right to freedom of opinion; on the independence of judges; on freedom of peaceful assembly; and on human rights defenders.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

The industry is watching closely to see how judges view these challenges, none of which has been decided so far.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

In most instances, judges have said school officials may use “race-neutral” policies to achieve racial diversity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026

He pointed out that judges had ruled against the Army in "dozens" of inquests into killings carried out by soldiers, including those at Ballymurphy and Springhill.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

“As much as I would like to do a Vulcan mind meld with you all, it’s probably not our wisest move. Not this year. The Excelsior judges wouldn’t be able to determine who did what.”

From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein

At a time when housing developments are often judged by their cost and number of homes they can deliver, the project was recognised for the way it responds to its surroundings.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

A separate June 2026 analysis of 45 studies involving 2,205 patients also documented improvements in pain and function, but judged the overall certainty of the evidence to be low or very low.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

In March, the OBR judged that it would reach its goal with 24 billion pounds to spare.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

“However, the negative experience Kelly described on twitter would resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

Once she judged the cow two fields over not to be a threat, she cut her engines and glided to the foot of the mighty tree.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

The stock can gain 23% in coming months, judging by technical indicators.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Instead of judging older adults primarily by abilities that tend to weaken with age, the researchers encourage greater recognition of the capabilities that may become especially valuable later in life.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2026

Assessing them is merely judging a lying contest.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026

The mayor won the debate, if we’re judging by forensics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

Wilcox's power is that you think it's not him speaking but Public Opinion judging you through him.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

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Related Words

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