Adjudicare

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A legal process that involves making a formal judgment, especially in a court setting
2. the act of passing a decree or decision regarding a dispute or claim
3. a determination made by an authority to resolve a question or assign rights and responsibilities

Etymology: Adjudicare is a Latin verb built from "ad" ("to") and "judicare" ("to judge"), itself from "judex" ("judge"), which combines "jus" ("law") with a form of "dicere" ("to say"). Its literal sense was something like "to assign to someone by judgment," so a court that awarded property to a claimant was adjudicating it to them. English borrowed the word directly from Latin, and its use in the sense of formally deciding a dispute is the one that stuck. The earlier English sense of "to adjudge," meaning to pronounce a sentence or award something by legal decision, shows the same idea of judgment delivered to a party. The verb took on its modern English form in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when lawyers and writers wanted precise terms for official rulings.

Synonyms: adjudicate, judge, decide, rule, determine

Antonyms: ignore, overlook, neglect, disregard, avoid