Jury

How to spell jury

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jury

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jury mean?

1. nounA group of people sworn to hear evidence in a trial and return a verdict.
2. nounA panel of experts appointed to judge entries in a contest or exhibition.

Jury in a sentence

• The jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict.

• The film festival jury awarded the top prize to a first-time director.

• Defence lawyers tried to sway the jury with new evidence.

• A jury of architects reviewed every submission for the design award.

Where does jury come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French 'juree', meaning an oath or a sworn inquiry, which English took up through Anglo-Norman law in the 1300s. The root is the Latin verb 'iurare', 'to swear', built on 'ius', meaning law or what is right and binding. A jury was therefore originally a group of people who had sworn an oath to tell the truth and deliver a fair finding, and that idea of the sworn oath sits at the very heart of the word. The same 'ius' root gives us 'justice', 'judge', and 'perjury' (a false oath), all sharing the sense of law and sworn truth. The single-r spelling can trip writers who expect a doubled letter, but it traces straight back to that compact Latin core.

How the word is built

• jur- (from Latin ius/iurare: law, to swear an oath)
• -y (noun suffix)