Jurisdiction

How to spell jurisdiction

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce jurisdiction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jurisdiction mean?

1. nounThe official power to make legal decisions, or the territory over which that power extends.

Jurisdiction in a sentence

• The case fell outside the local court's jurisdiction.

• Tax rules vary from one jurisdiction to another.

Where does jurisdiction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin jurisdictio, which combined juris, the genitive of jus meaning 'law' or 'right', with dictio meaning 'a saying' or 'a declaration', the latter rooted in the verb dicere 'to say'. Quite literally, then, it described the act of 'declaring the law', the power a magistrate held to pronounce legal judgement. English took it up in the 1300s by way of Old French jurediction, and from the start it carried the sense of the authority to administer justice and the territory over which that authority ran. The dicere root is remarkably productive: it also sits inside 'dictate', 'verdict', 'predict', and 'diction', so remembering that jurisdiction ends in '-diction', the same way you spell ordinary 'diction', helps fix the trickier middle of the word. The fragile spot for spellers is the unstressed middle syllable 'jur-is', where the linking 'i' is easy to drop or swap.

How the word is built

• juris- (from jus, juris: law, right)
• dict (from dicere: to say, declare)
• -ion (noun suffix)