Adjudicator

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈd͡ʒuː.dɪ.keɪ.tə/

Definitions

1. A professional responsible for settling disputes by applying laws or regulations
2. An individual appointed to evaluate and resolve conflicts by interpreting applicable rules or laws
3. Someone entrusted with deciding outcomes in disagreements through impartial judgment

Etymology: The word is a plain English formation: "adjudicate" with the agent suffix "-or" added, meaning one who adjudicates. The verb "adjudicate" comes from Latin "adjudicare," meaning "to award or assign to someone by judicial decision," built from "ad-" ("to") and "judicare" ("to judge"), so the core idea of the family is simply judging toward a result. The suffix has its own route into English. The Latin agent ending "-tor" (in forms like "-ātor") passed into Old French as "-eor," and Middle English shaped it into "-our," which later settled into the modern "-or" spelling. Many English words for people who perform an action, such as "governor" and "editor," were built the same way, so "adjudicator" belongs to a large and familiar group.

Synonyms: judge, arbitrator