Showing results for "justified"

• past participle of justify.
• past tense form of justify.

justified

American  

[juhs-tuh-fahyd] / ˈdʒʌs təˌfaɪd /

adjective

1. having been shown to be just or right.

   If a parent sides with one child over another, one will feel righteous and justified, and the other will feel misunderstood and resentful.

2. warranted or well-grounded.

   The commission’s stance is that bans on GMO crops must be scientifically justified and crop-specific.

   I accept that there may be a penalty for justified civil disobedience, but I must weigh that penalty against the good that can be accomplished.

3. Printing. aligned with one or, especially, both margins.

   Justified text looks a little neater, but there's nothing particularly wrong with having a ragged right edge.

---

noun

1. Theology. Usually the justified a person or persons believed to be worthy, redeemed, or absolved.

   Good works are logically and morally necessary, for they are nothing more or less than the evidence that one is indeed among the justified.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of justify.

Other Word Forms

• half-justified
  adjective
• unjustified
  adjective
• well-justified
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of justified

justify ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

---

Explanation

In typesetting, the term justified refers to how words line up with the margins of a page or column. Whether you choose to make the text left, right, or fully justified depends on the purpose of the text. If you're typing a letter, you may want the date and your address to be right justified. The last character on each line would touch the right margin. The salutation (the part that says, "Dear Sir or Madam") would be left justified, with the D touching the left margin. The body of the letter could be left justified, with the right margin uneven, or fully justified, with both the right and left aligned.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

justified

"I justified it in my head by saying to myself, at least he admitted it," she told the Times.

From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2026

He denied responsibility, but during police questioning, he said attacks on Enedis for its Linky technology were justified.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

This collaborative approach is intended to help clinicians select appropriate phages and determine whether treatment is justified.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

The court concluded that the government had not demonstrated that such extraordinary intervention was legally justified.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026

I take it as a justified release and head for the door.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• constitutional
• contractual
• fair
• juridical
• lawful
• legitimate
• proper
• statutory
• valid

---