Arbitration

How to spell arbitration

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce arbitration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does arbitration mean?

1. nounThe settling of a dispute by an impartial third party whose decision the sides agree to accept.

Arbitration in a sentence

• The two companies sent their contract dispute to arbitration rather than to court.

• The union agreed to binding arbitration after the pay talks collapsed.

Where does arbitration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb arbitrari, meaning 'to judge' or 'to give an opinion', which was built on the noun arbiter, a person who acts as a judge, umpire, or witness to a dispute. The Latin arbiter is thought to combine ad ('to') with a verb meaning 'to go' or 'to approach', picturing someone who comes to the scene to settle a matter. From the verb came the Latin noun arbitratio, describing the act of judging or deciding, and English took the word in by way of Old French during the late Middle Ages. The same arbiter root still lives in the everyday words 'arbiter' and 'arbitrary', the latter once meaning simply 'decided by a judge'. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle, where the second 'i' is a faint schwa, so writers must remember it is arbitr-, not 'arbatr-' or 'arbetr-'.

How the word is built

• arbitr- (from arbiter: judge, witness)
• -ation (noun of action)