Justice

How to spell justice

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce justice

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does justice mean?

1. nounThe quality of being fair and reasonable, or the legal system that upholds rights and punishes wrongs.
2. nounA judge, especially one sitting in a higher or supreme court, used as a title.

Justice in a sentence

• The victims waited years to see justice done in court.

• The case was heard by a senior justice of the appeal court.

• A strong sense of justice guided every decision she made at work.

• The retiring justice had served on the bench for thirty years.

Where does justice come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin justitia, meaning 'righteousness' or 'fairness', which was built on justus, 'lawful' or 'upright', and ultimately on jus, the noun for 'law' or 'right'. The same jus root sits inside many legal words English uses today, including 'jury', 'judge', and 'jurisdiction', which is a useful reminder that the spelling begins with a j and not a g. English took the word from Old French justice during the twelfth century, originally in the sense of the administration of law and the quality of being fair. From there it broadened to cover both the abstract ideal of fairness and the practical machinery of courts and punishment. The final -ice ending, easy to misjudge as -ace or -ise, comes straight from the Latin abstract suffix -titia softened through French.

How the word is built

• jus- (from Latin jus: law, right)
• -tice (from -titia, forming an abstract noun)