Noun: justice
| Singular | justice |
| Plural | justices |
Sample Sentences
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the justice of a description
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This even-handed justice / Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice / To our own lips. [c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vii]:]
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God recognized the justice of the moon's plea and compensated for its diminution by promising that only the moon would be seen both day and night. [2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 8:]
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Justice was served.
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The perfect society is not to be an embodiment of the idea of justice, but one in which that idea has no meaning, since it is bound up with private property and the regulation of property relationships. [1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 145:]
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to demand justice
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Ministry of Justice
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the justice system
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Mr. Justice Krever presides over the appellate court
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Gee, I guess that’s up to the justices. Can’t imagine this court — which I find too conservative but not crazy — is going to issue a ruling that says a president can break any law in the land as an “official act” without consequence. [2024 March 4, Gail Collins, Bret Stephens, “Trump Is the Leading Man”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:]
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As to Perſons of Quality, they give Security to appropriate a certain Sum for each Child, ſuitable to their Condition; and theſe Funds are always managed with good Husbandry and the moſt exact Juſtice. [1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Of the Inhabitants of Lilliput; […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 106–107:]
Nouns inflected like justice
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English justice, from Old French justise, justice (Modern French justice), from Latin iūstitia (“righteousness, equity”), from iūstus (“just”), from iūs (“right”), from Proto-Italic *jowos, perhaps literally "sacred formula", a word peculiar to Latin (not general Italic) that originated in the religious cults, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-. Doublet of Justitia.
2. Partly displaced native Old English rihtwīsnes (Modern English righteousness < rightwiseness). See: Middle English Nouns '
justice', French Nouns '
justice', Latin Nouns '
iūstitia'.