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plaintiff
[ pleyn-tif ]
/ ˈpleɪn tɪf /
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noun Law.
a person who brings suit in a court (opposed to defendant).
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Origin of plaintiff
1350–1400; Middle English plaintif complaining person, noun use of the adj.: plaintive
OTHER WORDS FROM plaintiff
plain·tiff·ship, nounWORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH plaintiff
plaintiff , plaintiveWords nearby plaintiff
plain-spoken, plainstones, plain suit, plaint, plaintext, plaintiff, plaintive, plain tripe, plain turkey, plain-vanilla, Plainview
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use plaintiff in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for plaintiff
plaintiff
/ (ˈpleɪntɪf) /
noun
(formerly) a person who brings a civil action in a court of lawNow replaced by: claimant Compare defendant (def. 1)
Word Origin for plaintiff
C14: from legal French plaintif, from Old French plaintif (adj) complaining, from plainte plaint
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for plaintiff
plaintiff
The party that institutes a suit in a court. The person or entity the plaintiff sues is the defendant.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.