Meaning & use
a mock trial
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablelegal
A pretend court case staged for practice or teaching, with students or actors playing the lawyers, witnesses and jury.
Grammar: Countable: they held a mock trial.
Patterns
- hold a mock trial
- take part in a mock trial
Our class held a mock trial about a stolen bicycle.
She practiced cross-examination in a mock trial at law school.
The mock trial helped students see how a jury decides.
nouncountabledisapprovingfigurative
An unfair or insincere hearing whose result seems already decided.
Grammar: Used figuratively and critically: the hearing was a mock trial.
Critics called the inquiry a mock trial with a fixed verdict.
The regime staged a mock trial of its opponents.
Word forms
| plural | mock trials |
|---|
Common combinations
- hold a mock trial
- The school holds a mock trial every spring.
- mock trial team
- She joined the mock trial team.
- mock trial competition
- Their team won the mock trial competition.
- stage a mock trial
- The students staged a mock trial of a famous case.
Synonyms and how they differ
- moot court
- Moot court is a law-school exercise with appeals arguments, so it is more specialized.
- simulated trial
- Simulated trial is a more formal phrase with the same basic meaning.
- sham trial
- Sham trial means a fake, unfair proceeding, which is critical, unlike a harmless school mock trial.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: a mock trial or moot court?
a mock trial vs moot court
Moot court focuses on legal arguments before judges, not witnesses and juries.
Practice
Why do law students take part in a mock trial?
Choose one answer.
A mock trial is rehearsal. Nobody's real case is decided.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a mock trial”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.