Judgment

Pronunciation

• enPR: jÅ­j'mÉ™nt, IPA: /ˈdÊ’ÊŒdÊ’.mÉ™nt/

Alternative forms

• judgement British
• iugement, iudgement, iudgment, iudgemente, iudgmente obsolete

Origin

From Old French jugement, from Late Latin iūdicāmentum.

Full definition of judgment

Noun

1. The act of judging.
2. The power or faculty of performing such operations; especially, when unqualified, the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely; as, a man of judgment; a politician without judgment.
• Psalms 72:2 (King James Version of the Bible).He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment.
• Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, I-iHermia. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. Theseus. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
3. The conclusion or result of judging; an opinion; a decision.
• Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV-ivShe in my judgment was as fair as you.
4. (legal) The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge.
• Jeremy Taylor.In judgments between rich and poor, consider not what the poor man needs, but what is his own.
• Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, IV-iMost heartily I do beseech the court To give the judgment.
5. (theology) The final award; the last sentence.

Usage notes

See for discussion of spelling usage of judgment versus judgement. Briefly, without the -e is preferred in law globally, and in American English, while with the -e is preferred in British English.

Like abridgment, acknowledgment, and lodgment, judgment is sometimes written with English spellings in American English, as judgement (respectively, abridgement, acknowledgement, and lodgement).

The British spelling preserves the rule that G can only be soft while preceding an E, I, or Y.

Derived terms