Meaning & use
judge
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Meanings
nouncountable
A public official who has the power to decide cases in a court of law.
Grammar: Countable: a judge, the judge, judges. Often used with 'the' when referring to a specific official.
Patterns
- a judge
- the judge
- appear before a judge
The judge listened carefully to both sides of the argument.
She was appointed as a judge last year.
The judge sentenced him to two years in prison.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To form an opinion or make a decision about someone or something, often after careful thought.
Grammar: Can take an object: judge a contest, judge someone's actions. Also used without an object: Don't judge.
Patterns
- judge someone/something
- judge by something
- judge someone on something
You shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
The panel will judge the entries based on creativity and originality.
It's hard to judge how long the project will take.
verbtransitive
To decide who has won a competition or to give an official decision in a sports event.
Grammar: Takes an object: judge a competition, judge a gymnastics routine.
Patterns
- judge a competition
- judge an event
She was asked to judge the singing contest.
He has judged many international figure-skating competitions.
Word forms
| third person singular | judges |
|---|---|
| past tense | judged |
| past participle | judged |
| -ing form | judging |
| plural | judges |
Common combinations
- judge by appearance
- Don't judge people by their appearance.
- judge a competition
- She will judge the photography competition.
- appear before a judge
- The suspect will appear before a judge tomorrow.
- judge someone harshly
- He felt that his colleagues judged him harshly.
- judging by
- Judging by the sky, it's going to rain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- justice
- A title for certain judges, especially in the US Supreme Court; not a general synonym.
- magistrate
- A type of judge who handles less serious cases; more specific than judge.
- assess
- A verb meaning to evaluate; more formal than judge and often used for things, not people.
- evaluate
- Similar to judge but more neutral and technical; often used in academic contexts.
Word family
- judgment noun
- The ability to make good decisions, or an official decision by a court.
- judicial adjective
- Relating to courts or judges.
- judgmental adjective
- Too ready to criticize others.
- judicious adjective
- Showing good sense and careful thought.
Commonly confused: judge or justice? judge or jury?
judge vs justice
As a title, 'Justice' is used for judges of higher courts, especially in the US; 'judge' is the general term.
judge vs jury
A jury is a group of citizens who decide guilt in a trial; a judge is the official who runs the trial and decides the law.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
The fixed expression is 'judge a book by its cover'. The other prepositions are not used in this idiom, even though they might seem logical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “judge”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.