TRIAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does trial mean? 

• TRIAL (noun)
  The noun TRIAL has 6 senses:

1. the act of testing something

2. trying something to find out about it

3. the act of undergoing testing

4. (law) the determination of a person's innocence or guilt by due process of law

5. (sports) a preliminary competition to determine qualifications

6. an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event

  Familiarity information: TRIAL used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRIAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of testing something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

run; test; trial

Context example:

he called each flip of the coin a new trial

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

attempt; effort; endeavor; endeavour; try (earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something)

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

clinical test; clinical trial (a rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects; in the United States it is conducted under the direction of the FDA before being made available for general clinical use)

double blind (a test procedure in which the identity of those receiving the intervention is concealed from both the administrators and the subjects until after the test is completed; designed to reduce or eliminate bias in the results)

preclinical phase; preclinical test; preclinical trial (a laboratory test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on animal subjects; conducted to gather evidence justifying a clinical trial)

audition; tryout (a test of the suitability of a performer)

field trial (a test of young hunting dogs to determine their skill in pointing and retrieving)

fitting; try-on; trying on (putting clothes on to see whether they fit)

Ministry of Transportation test; MOT; MOT test (a compulsory annual test of older motor vehicles for safety and exhaust fumes)

pilot program; pilot project (activity planned as a test or trial)

Snellen test (a test of visual acuity using a Snellen chart)

assay (a quantitative or qualitative test of a substance (especially an ore or a drug) to determine its components; frequently used to test for the presence or concentration of infectious agents or antibodies etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Trying something to find out about it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

test; trial; trial run; tryout

Context example:

a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the pain

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

experiment; experimentation (the testing of an idea)

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

field test; field trial (a test of the performance of some new product under the conditions in which it will be used)

alpha test ((computer science) a first test of an experimental product (such as computer software) carried out by the developer)

beta test ((computer science) a second test of an experimental product (such as computer software) carried out by an outside organization)

road test (a test to insure that a vehicle is roadworthy)

trial balloon (a test of public opinion)

Derivation:

try (take a sample of)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of undergoing testing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

test; trial

Context example:

candidates must compete in a trial of skill

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

attempt; effort; endeavor; endeavour; try (earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something)

Derivation:

try (put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(law) the determination of a person's innocence or guilt by due process of law

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

most of these complaints are settled before they go to trial

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

legal proceeding; proceeding; proceedings ((law) the institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked)

Meronyms (parts of "trial"):

plea (an answer indicating why a suit should be dismissed)

criminal prosecution; prosecution (the institution and conduct of legal proceedings against a defendant for criminal behavior)

defence; defense; demurrer; denial (a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him)

Domain category:

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

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

ordeal; trial by ordeal (a primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control; escape was usually taken as a sign of innocence)

retrial (a new trial in which issues already litigated and to which the court has already rendered a verdict or decision are reexamined by the same court; occurs when the initial trial is found to have been improper or unfair due to procedural errors)

mistrial (a trial that is invalid or inconclusive)

show trial (a trial held for show; the guilt of the accused person has been decided in advance)

Scopes trial (a highly publicized trial in 1925 when John Thomas Scopes violated a Tennessee state law by teaching evolution in high school; Scopes was prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan and defended by Clarence Darrow; Scopes was convicted but the verdict was later reversed)

court-martial (a trial that is conducted by a military court)

Derivation:

try (put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(sports) a preliminary competition to determine qualifications

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

the trials for the semifinals began yesterday

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

competition; contest (an occasion on which a winner is selected from among two or more contestants)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

trial; tribulation; visitation

Context example:

a visitation of the plague

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

affliction (a cause of great suffering and distress)

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

fire (a severe trial)

Derivation:

try (give pain or trouble to)

 Context examples 

Then he amused her for an hour, and was much interested in all her trials.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The medical history dataset includes the subject's prior history at the start of the trial.

(Medical History Domain, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Yes, sir. You are a man whose veracity is upon trial, and this committee is here to try it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It will be some trial to us both.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The concept includes trials conducted by National Cooperative Groups.

(National Protocol Standard Cancer Center Information Summary, NCI Thesaurus)

I impressed it on my heart, that it might remain there to serve me as aid in the time of trial.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But there was one trial in White Fang's life—Collie.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A tobacco control trial conducted over the 7-year period from 1991-1998.

(American Stop Smoking Intervention for Cancer Prevention, NCI Thesaurus)

“You'd have said so, if you had seen her, standing on a chair in the witness-box at the trial, as I did,” said my friend.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As would be expected in an older adult population, cancer was a common cause of death, and 50 percent of the people who died in the trial had some type of cancer.

(Daily low-dose aspirin found to have no effect on healthy life span in older people, National Institutes of Health)