justified

[juhs-tuh-fahyd]

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of justified¹

justify ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

While may have felt justified and good for young leftist men to throw punches at Proud Boys, it provided them with photos that prop up MAGA’s antifa lie.

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Would you say the opprobrium that came down on him was justified or excessive?

Read more on Los Angeles Times

To the extent that contemporary investors are paying higher premiums to own stocks, Subramanian and her team have insisted that there are reasons higher valuations might be justified.

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As despair and justified rage fuel authoritarian fake populism both here and abroad, Churchill’s words ring painfully true.

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Party leader Zandile Dabula insists that what her organisation is doing at public clinics in Johannesburg and other parts of the country is justified.

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Related Words

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