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.

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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

An aggressive conversion strategy probably isn’t justified given your wealth and income, but a multi-year Roth-conversion strategy deserves at least some consideration.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

The court said in a statement that it had unanimously found that "none of the grounds" put forward by India to suspend the treaty were justified.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

After reviewing the evidence, an internal review board was divided on whether Garcia-Alamilla was justified in using deadly force.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

However, Hong Kong's top court overturned that conviction in 2022, with a judge ruling the police hadn't properly justified the vigil's ban.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

The Court justified this insurmountable hurdle on the grounds that considerable deference is owed the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Related Words

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