# justice

Pronunciation: say "JUS-tis" /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/

## Noun

1. The quality or ideal of being fair, impartial, and morally right, whether in how people are treated or in a particular law, decision, cause, or claim.
   - Simple: Fairness and rightness in how people are treated, and in whether laws, decisions, or claims are fair and deserved.
   - _The protesters demanded justice for victims of abuse by those in power._
   - _A society built on justice treats the rich and the poor by the same standard._
2. The administration and enforcement of the law through courts and other authorities, by which people accused of wrongdoing are judged and punished.
   - Simple: The system of laws, courts, and officials that judges people accused of doing wrong and punishes them.
   - _Budget cuts have left the county's justice system short of judges and public defenders._
   - _After law school, she joined the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor._
3. A formal title given to judges of certain high courts, capitalized when placed before the judge's name.
   - Simple: A title used for judges of certain high courts, with a capital letter when it comes before a name.
   - _The justice questioned whether the evidence had been lawfully obtained._
   - _Justice Okonkwo recused herself from the case._

## Origin

This word came into Middle English from Old French justise, from Latin iūstitia ("righteousness, equity"), built on iūstus ("just") and iūs ("right"). The Latin iūs traces back to Proto-Italic *jowos, perhaps literally a "sacred formula" that originated in religious cults, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-. It partly displaced the native Old English rihtwīsnes (modern "righteousness").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/justice (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).