Just

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dÊ’ÊŒst/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒst

From Middle English juste, from Old French juste, from Latin iustus ("just, lawful, rightful, true, due, proper, moderate"), from ius ("law, right"). Cognate with Dutch & Scottish juist, French juste etc.

Adjective

1. Factually fair; right, correct; proper.It is a just assessment of the facts.
2. Morally fair; upright; righteous, equitable.It looks like a just solution at first glance.
• ShakespeareWe know your grace to be a man
  Just and upright.

Synonyms

• fair
• upright
• righteous
• equitable

Antonyms

• unjust

Derived terms

• justly
• justness

Related terms

• justice

Full definition of just

Adverb

1. Only, simply, merely.
   Plant just a few tomatoes, unless you can, freeze, or dry them.
   He calls it vermilion, but it's just red to me.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
• 2013-06-08, The new masters and commanders, From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much....  But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
• 2013-06-14, Sam Leith, Where the profound meets the profane, Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.
2. (sentence adverb) Used to reduce the force of an imperative; simply.
   Just follow the directions on the box.
3. (speech act) Used to convey a less serious or formal tone
   I just called to say "hi".
4. (speech act) Used to show humility.
   Lord, we just want to thank You and praise Your Name.
5. Moments ago, recently.
   They just left, but you may leave a message at the desk.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room...and came back with a salt mackerel.... Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.
6. By a narrow margin; closely; nearly.
   The fastball just missed my head!
   The piece just might fit.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 14, Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall.  Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.
7. Exactly, perfectly.
   He wants everything just right for the big day.
8. Precisely.
• John DrydenAnd having just enough, not covet more.
• Sir Philip SidneyThe god Pan guided my hand just to the heart of the beast.
• William ShakespeareTo-night, at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one.
• 2013-06-22, Engineers of a different kind, Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

Synonyms

• merely, simply
• (barely, almost not or not quite) barely, hardly, scarcely

Derived terms

• just folks

Variation of joust, presumably ultimately from Latin iuxta 'near, besides'.

Noun

1. A joust, tournament.

Verb

1. To joust, fight a tournament.

Anagrams

• juts