adjudicate

English

WOTD – 12 September 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin adiūdicō, adiūdicātus, from ad + iūdicō (“to judge”). Doublet of adjudge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈd͡ʒudɪˌkeɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

adjudicate (third-person singular simple present adjudicates, present participle adjudicating, simple past and past participle adjudicated)

1. (transitive) to decide, rule on, or settle as a judge.
   • 1983, Paul Thompson, Tony Wailey, Trevor Lummis, History Workshop Series, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul:

     From the twelfth century Shetland had been administered directly by the Norwegian crown through the 'foud', rather than forming part of the patrimony of a great aristocratic estate. The foud appointed 'underfouds' and the Shetlands evolved their own elected officers, a 'lawman' and parish 'lawrightmen', who adjudicated and negotiated the collection of customary taxes and fines on behalf of the local population.

   • 2022 April 7, Noam Scheiber, “N.L.R.B. counsel calls for a ban on mandatory anti-union meetings.”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, who enforces federal labor law by prosecuting violations, said her office would soon file a brief in a case before the labor board, which adjudicates such questions, asking the board to reverse its precedent on the meetings.

   • 2024 April 7, PTI, “Tribunals formed to adjudicate if sufficient grounds available to declare J-K groups as banned”, in deccanherald.com‎^[2]:

     The Union Home Ministry has constituted four tribunals […] to adjudicate whether or not there are sufficient grounds for declaring several Jammu and Kashmir-based groups as banned organisations […]

   • 2024 April 29, Josh Pringle, “Ottawa looks to move photo radar and red light camera tickets out of provincial courts”, in ottawa.ctvnews.ca‎^[3]:

     with municipally appointed screening and hearing officers adjudicating ticket disputes instead of the provincial court system.

2. (intransitive, often followed by on) to act as a judge.
   • 2023 July 7, Anirban Bhaumik, “Court of Arbitration concludes it can adjudicate on Pakistan’s objection to India’s hydel projects, New Delhi rejects ruling”, in deccanherald.com‎^[4]:

     A Court of Arbitration, constituted by the World Bank in The Hague, has brushed aside New Delhi’s objections and concluded that it has the competence to adjudicate on Pakistan’s objection to the Kishenganga and Ralte hydroelectric projects of India.

3. (Scots law, transitive, as of a debtor's estate) to seize or convey as security.

Synonyms

• arbitrate
• decide
• settle
• resolve
• try

Derived terms

• adjudication
• adjudicative
• adjudicator
• adjudicatory
• readjudicate
• unadjudicated

 

Related terms

• abjudicate
• adjudge

Translations

to settle a legal case or other dispute

• Armenian: դատել (hy) (datel), վճռել (hy) (včṙel)
• Bulgarian: отсъждам (bg) (otsǎždam)
• Catalan: adjudicar (ca), jutjar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 裁決 / 裁决 (zh) (cáijué)

• Czech: rozsoudit (cs)
• Dutch: berechten (nl)
• Finnish: ratkaista (fi), tuomita (fi)
• French: juger (fr), trancher (fr)
• German: urteilen (de), entscheiden (de), richten (de)
• Hungarian: ítéletet hoz (hu), határozatot hoz (hu)
• Indonesian: mengadili (id)
• Malay: menghakimi
• Norwegian: bedømme, dømme (no), pådømme
• Russian: суди́ть (ru) (sudítʹ), выноси́ть реше́ние (vynosítʹ rešénije)
• Spanish: adjudicar (es), juzgar (es)
• Swedish: döma (sv)

to act as a judge

• Armenian: դատավարել (hy) (datavarel)
• Bulgarian: присъждам (bg) (prisǎždam), решавам дело (rešavam delo)
• Catalan: jutjar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 判決 / 判决 (zh) (pànjué)

• Finnish: tuomita (fi)
• German: richten (de)
• Norwegian: dømme (no)
• Spanish: juzgar (es)

References

• “adjudicate, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Spanish

Verb

adjudicate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of adjudicar combined with te