JUSTICE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Justice mean? 

• JUSTICE (noun)
  The noun JUSTICE has 4 senses:

1. the quality of being just or fair

2. judgment involved in the determination of rights and the assignment of rewards and punishments

3. a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice

4. the United States federal department responsible for enforcing federal laws (including the enforcement of all civil rights legislation); created in 1870

  Familiarity information: JUSTICE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JUSTICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being just or fair

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

justice; justness

Hypernyms ("justice" is a kind of...):

righteousness (adhering to moral principles)

natural virtue ((scholasticism) one of the four virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) derived from nature)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "justice"):

equity; fairness (conformity with rules or standards)

right; rightfulness (anything in accord with principles of justice)

Antonym:

injustice (the practice of being unjust or unfair)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Judgment involved in the determination of rights and the assignment of rewards and punishments

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("justice" is a kind of...):

assessment; judgement; judgment (the act of judging or assessing a person or situation or event)

Domain member category:

prejudice (disadvantage by prejudice)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "justice"):

administration; judicature (the act of meting out justice according to the law)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

judge; jurist; justice

Hypernyms ("justice" is a kind of...):

adjudicator (a person who studies and settles conflicts and disputes)

functionary; official (a worker who holds or is invested with an office)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "justice"):

alcalde (a mayor or chief magistrate of a Spanish town)

chief justice (the judge who presides over a supreme court)

Daniel (a wise and upright judge)

doge (formerly the chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa)

justiciar; justiciary (formerly a high judicial officer)

magistrate (a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses))

ordinary (a judge of a probate court)

praetor; pretor (an annually elected magistrate of the ancient Roman Republic)

qadi (an Islamic judge)

recorder (a barrister or solicitor who serves as part-time judge in towns or boroughs)

trial judge (a judge in a trial court)

trier (one (as a judge) who examines and settles a case)

Instance hyponyms:

Samson ((Old Testament) a judge of Israel who performed herculean feats of strength against the Philistines until he was betrayed to them by his mistress Delilah)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The United States federal department responsible for enforcing federal laws (including the enforcement of all civil rights legislation); created in 1870

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

Department of Justice; DoJ; Justice; Justice Department

Hypernyms ("Justice" is a kind of...):

executive department (a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States)

Meronyms (parts of "Justice"):

BJA; Bureau of Justice Assistance (the bureau in the Department of Justice that assists local criminal justice systems to reduce or prevent crime and violence and drug abuse)

BJS; Bureau of Justice Statistics (the agency in the Department of Justice that is the primary source of criminal justice statistics for federal and local policy makers)

FBI; Federal Bureau of Investigation (a federal law enforcement agency that is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Justice)

DEA; Drug Enforcement Administration; Drug Enforcement Agency (federal agency responsible for enforcing laws and regulations governing narcotics and controlled substances; goal is to immobilize drug trafficking organizations)

BoP; Federal Bureau of Prisons (the law enforcement agency of the Justice Department that operates a nationwide system of prisons and detention facilities to incarcerate inmates sentenced to imprisonment for federal crimes)

National Institute of Justice; NIJ (the law enforcement agency that is the research and development branch of the Department of Justice)

Marshals; United States Marshals Service; US Marshals Service (the United States' oldest federal law enforcement agency is responsible today for protecting the Federal Judiciary and transporting federal prisoners and protecting federal witnesses and managing assets seized from criminals and generally ensuring the effective operation of the federal judicial system)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

legislation; statute law (law enacted by a legislative body)

 Context examples 

But she does not do him justice, nor think enough about Winthrop.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“I shall do it justice, for I have come from Yarmouth.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I would rather be talking to you,” he replied; “but as it seems a matter of justice, it shall be done.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Yet could I, in justice, or even in possibility, refuse this demand?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At present I have not room to do them justice.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There was no justice in it, no merit on his part.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It’s every man’s business to see justice done.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Oh! if all you doubt is my sincerity, I am easy: you see the justice of the case?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You might at least do him the justice to hear him state his own case.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To do him justice, however, he did not resolve to appropriate it; for remembering that there was some very good ranting-ground in Frederick, he professed an equal willingness for that.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)