court
Pluralcourts
Pluralcourts
Formscourts, courting, courted
- 1A body of judges, or a single judge, with authority to hear and decide legal cases, together with its officials.
The appeals court employs dozens of clerks alongside its bench of judges.
Several lower courts share authority over family law matters in the region.
UsageNo article in set phrases: go to court, take someone to court, settle out of court.
Note
The institution outlasts any single hearing or judge, and in this sense courts are countable and come in tiers. Canada's provinces each have a provincial court, a superior court and a court of appeal. This is the sense in which a court has a jurisdiction and staff, and it is the one most often modified by a level or a proper name.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- A court is a continuing institution that survives changes of judges and individual hearings. scc-csc.ca
- Canada's provinces each have provincial, superior and appeal courts, arranged in levels. justice.gc.ca
- Courts have jurisdiction and supporting staff. scc-csc.ca
- 2A marked-out area for games such as tennis, basketball, or squash, or either side's half of it.
The groundskeeper resurfaced the court before the tournament weekend.
A regulation basketball court has clearly painted boundary lines at each end.
Note
Sports name it by the game played on it: a tennis court, a squash court, a basketball court, each laid out to its own standard dimensions. The lines matter as much as the surface, because a ball or shuttlecock that lands outside the court is out of play. In tennis, badminton and volleyball, each court divides into two halves, one for each side.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts
- Tennis courts have prescribed dimensions. itftennis.com
- Squash courts have prescribed dimensions. federsquash.it
- Basketball courts have prescribed dimensions. refereeing.fiba.basketball
- A tennis ball landing outside the court boundaries during a rally is out. itftennis.com
- A badminton shuttle landing outside the court boundaries is a fault. system.bwfbadminton.com
- A tennis court is divided across the middle by a net, providing a half for each side. itftennis.com
- A badminton court is divided into two halves by a net. en.wikipedia.org
- A volleyball court is divided into two equal halves, one for each team. fivb.com
- 3A sitting or session of a judicial assembly.
Court was in session for nearly six hours that day.
The clerk called for order as court convened.
UsageUsually no article: court is in session, after court, adjourn court. With the, it leans toward the judges or the building.
Note
WCCO's 2023 report on the Julissa Thaler sentencing has the family speaking "after court," meaning once that day's session had ended.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- WCCO's 2023 Thaler sentencing report describes family speaking after court. cbsnews.com
- 4The hall, chamber, or building in which justice is administered and cases are heard.
Reporters crowded the corridor leading into the court before the verdict.
Security checked every visitor entering the court that afternoon.
UsageFor just the room or the building, courtroom or courthouse is clearer.
Similarcourtroom, courthouse
Note
The law uses one word for the room, the judges and the institution, so context does the sorting. To be "put on trial in this court" is to be tried in a particular place. When a ruling is in question, the court means the judge or judges instead.
- 5A sovereign's household and attendants, their formal gatherings, or the palace where they live.
The king's favorite poet held a privileged place at court.
Rumors of the queen's illness spread quickly through the court, alarming her ministers and servants.
Usageat court, with no article, means in the royal household: a favorite at court.
Similarhousehold, palace, retinue, entourage
Note
People rather than walls. Shakespeare's "a nobleman of the court" in Henry IV, Part 1 places a person within that society. Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel sets "the court, the camp, the grove" side by side as three worlds that love rules, with court standing for the whole life of royal company. Royal household names the same circle from its domestic side.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, spoken by the Hostess in Act II, scene iv. en.wikisource.org
- Walter Scott wrote The Lay of the Last Minstrel. en.wikisource.org
- The poem places court, camp, and grove together as domains ruled by love. en.wikisource.org
- 6To try to win someone's love, as a partner or future spouse; also, to be in such a relationship. Of an animal, to try to attract a mate, often with a display.
For months he courted his coworker with coffee runs and handwritten notes before she agreed to a date.
Some people still prefer to court a love interest slowly, over many quiet dinners.
UsageSounds old-fashioned for people today; date or go out with is more usual. It stays common for animals attracting a mate.
Less common meanings
- 7To try to win someone's support or something desirable, such as investors, voters or an award.
Startups eager to grow will court investors at every conference.
The director courted critical praise with a deliberately provocative film.
Similarwoo, seek, pursue, solicit, cultivate
Note
Used of anyone seeking favor: candidates court voters, companies court investors and studios court award voters. The object is the person or prize sought, and the word stresses the effort of winning it over, not the result.
- 8To behave in a way that invites a usually negative consequence; to expose oneself to a risk.
Editors who publish unverified claims court legal trouble.
His blunt criticism of the regime courted real danger.
UsageMostly in set phrases: court disaster, court controversy, court danger.
Note
The ironic use: one "woos" what nobody wants. Modern Railways in 1964 asked whether letting a train run up to seven miles with a defective wagon was not "courting disaster." The construction suggests recklessness, as if the risk were being invited rather than merely run.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The cited Modern Railways passage dates from 1964. en.wiktionary.org
- The passage asks whether allowing a train to travel up to seven miles with a defective vehicle is courting disaster. en.wiktionary.org
- 9An uncovered space enclosed by the walls of a building or by several buildings; a courtyard, or a narrow space opening from a street.
A small fountain stood at the heart of the inner court.
The alley widened into a quiet court ringed by tall tenements.
Similarcourtyard, quadrangle, yard
Note
The enclosed space ranges widely: Tennyson's "cool green courts" ringed with cloisters in "The Palace of Art," and the "miserable court" where Macaulay's Goldsmith took a garret.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Tennyson's poem The Palace of Art contains “cool green courts” surrounded by cloisters. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
- Macaulay describes Goldsmith taking a garret in a “miserable court.” gutenberg.org
- 10A short street closed at one end so that traffic cannot pass through; a cul-de-sac.
Their house sits at the end of a leafy court.
Property on a court often appeals to families with young children.
UsageCommon in street names, shortened to Ct. in addresses: Maple Court, 12 Oak Ct.
Similarcul-de-sac
Note
In Australia and the US the word stretches from a yard to a whole street, one closed at the far end so that houses wrap around it the way buildings wrap around an enclosed courtyard. That shared shape is why court sits comfortably beside cul-de-sac.
- 11Deferential attention and courteous behavior directed at a powerful person in order to win favor.
The advisers paid elaborate court to the king at every opportunity.
Ambitious young nobles paid court to the king's new favorite minister.
UsageMostly in pay court to someone.
Similarhomage, deference, attention
Note
These are the manners of the sovereign's retinue: a courtier's attentions, offered to anyone whose favor is worth having. John Evelyn in 1667 goes "to make court to" a duke and duchess, and today one pays court to someone. Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) sets it beside dalliance, where the same attentions shade into wooing.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- John Evelyn recorded going to make court to a duke and duchess in 1667. gutenberg.org
- Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene was first published in 1590, initially comprising Books I–III. gla.ac.uk
- The Faerie Queene places court beside dalliance in an amorous context. gutenberg.org
- 12In Hong Kong, an apartment building or housing development, including subsidized Home Ownership Scheme estates.
- 13A patch of ground that certain bird species clear and decorate in order to display themselves to a prospective mate.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin cohors was contracted to Late Latin cōrs, which became Old French cort or curt and then Middle English court. Cohort is a doublet.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Latin cohors was contracted to Late Latin cōrs. en.wiktionary.org
- Late Latin cōrs became Old French cort or curt. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English court derives from Old French cort or curt. en.wiktionary.org
- Cohort and court are doublets. en.wiktionary.org