tribunal

[trahy-byoon-l, tri-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tribunal ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a court of justice.

a place or seat of judgment.

Also called tribune. a raised platform for the seats of magistrates, as in an ancient Roman basilica.

Origin of tribunal

1520–30; < Latin tribūnal, tribūnāle judgment seat, equivalent to tribūn(us) tribune¹ + -āl(e) -al²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tribunal

judge, justice, board, committee, bar, forum, judiciary, bench, council, magistrate

Examples from the Web for tribunal

Contemporary Examples of tribunal

Wesolowski is confined to house arrest in the walled city, awaiting trial in front of the Vatican tribunal.
Did the Vatican Arrest an Abuser to Protect Him?
Barbie Latza Nadeau
September 24, 2014
Committee Chairman Ed Royce called for a tribunal to be established to hold the Assad regime accountable for war crimes.
Syrian Defector: Assad Poised to Torture and Murder 150,000 More
Josh Rogin
July 31, 2014
Zia, in bed with the Islamists who were being dispatched to the gallows by the tribunal, found her appeal ebbing.
Bangladesh’s Radical Islamists Get U.S. Backing
Kapil Komireddi
January 12, 2014
An act of parliament was passed in 1973 to set up a tribunal with jurisdiction to punish the perpetrators of the genocide.
Bangladesh’s Radical Islamists Get U.S. Backing
Kapil Komireddi
January 12, 2014
Participating in this tribunal rewards players while cutting down on negativity.
My Xbox One Won’t Let Me Swear
Alec Kubas-Meyer
December 8, 2013

Historical Examples of tribunal

I know you, Evremonde; I saw you before the Tribunal to-day.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Inform the Tribunal of what you did that day within the Bastille, citizen.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
After which he and his opponent bowed to the tribunal, and departed.
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851
Various
The tribunal was impressed: the members, silent, attentive, let the witness have her way.
A Nest of Spies
Pierre Souvestre
It is a tribunal in which the priest is judge and the penitent a prisoner who pleads guilty.
The Eternal City
Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for tribunal

tribunal

noun

a court of justice or any place where justice is administered

(in Britain) a special court, convened by the government to inquire into a specific matter

a raised platform containing the seat of a judge or magistrate, originally that in a Roman basilica

Word Origin for tribunal

C16: from Latin tribūnus tribune 1

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

Word Origin and History for tribunal

mid-15c., from Old French tribunal (13c.), from Latin tribunal "platform for the seat of magistrates, elevation, embankment," from tribunus "official in ancient Rome, magistrate," literally "head of a tribe," from tribus (see tribe). Hence, a court of justice or judicial assembly (1580s).