Meaning & use
venire
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Meanings
nouncountablelegalAmerican
The group of ordinary citizens called to a court from whom the members of a trial jury will be picked.
Grammar: Countable and often followed by a singular or plural verb: the venire was sworn in.
Patterns
- a venire of people
- draw from the venire
The judge told the venire to wait in the hallway until their names were called.
Lawyers questioned each member of the venire about possible bias.
A venire of eighty citizens was summoned for the trial.
nouncountablelegaltechnical
The legal order, also called a writ, directing an official to summon people to serve as jurors.
Grammar: Often appears in the Latin phrase venire facias, a technical historical term.
Patterns
- venire facias
The court issued a venire to the sheriff for the next jury term.
Historians study how the venire was used in medieval courts.
The clerk prepared the venire before the trial began.
Word forms
| plural | venires |
|---|
Common combinations
- summon a venire
- The court summoned a venire of one hundred people.
- member of the venire
- Each member of the venire filled out a questionnaire.
- venire panel
- The venire panel was dismissed after the plea deal.
- strike from the venire
- The lawyer asked to strike one man from the venire.
- juror from the venire
- Each juror from the venire swore to be fair.
Synonyms and how they differ
- jury pool
- Jury pool is the ordinary phrase for the same group, and is far more common in speech than venire.
- panel
- Panel is a general word for a small group chosen for a task, while venire refers specifically to people summoned as potential jurors.
- array
- Array is a rare older legal term for the list of called jurors, found mostly in historical texts.
Word family
Commonly confused: venire or venue?
venire vs venue
Venue means the place where an event or trial happens, while venire means the group of people called to serve as potential jurors.
Practice
Before the trial, the lawyers questioned every member of the ___ to find fair jurors.
Choose one answer.
The venire is the pool of citizens from which jurors are chosen. Venue is the location of the trial, a common mix-up.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “venire”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.