The Meaning of Adjudication: What It Is and How To Use It

What is an adjudication? This article will cover the meaning of adjudication and how this legal term is used in court proceedings.

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Adjudication seems like a long and complicated term, but it isn’t actually difficult to understand. This article covers what the word adjudication means, its origin, translations, and synonyms. You will be able to use this seemingly complex legal term in no time!

What Does the Word Adjudication Mean?

According to Investopedia, adjudication means a judgment or legal ruling. This is usually a final judgment in the court system but can also be used in a more general sense to refer to some other type of judgment or ruling. The pronunciation of adjudication is əˌdʒuːdɪˈkeɪʃən, and adjudication is five syllables: ad-ju-di-ca-tion.

This term might be used during an insurance claim for unemployment insurance benefits or a bankruptcy, similar to arbitration. The difference between adjudication and arbitration is that arbitration is a private proceeding, while adjudication occurs via a government-appointed judge. 

Adjudications need to consider the applicable laws and the government and public interest, whereas arbitrations are only concerned with the interested parties. Adjudications are usually used to settle disputes between public officials, political officials, private parties, and public bodies. 

This type of court proceeding can commonly involve bankruptcy proceedings with a trier and a debtor, the distribution of rights, the obligations of a claimant or right of the claimants, a potential threat to national security, a felony offense, the satisfaction of a debt, and more. These disputes can vary, but the legal reasoning is a binding decision, even if further action will be taken later. 

People have a right to impartial adjudication and speedy adjudication. The justice-seeking legal process of adjudication must follow regulations like the formal rules of evidence. There is also emergency response adjudication, which is the process of identifying a device or type of material that sets off an alarm and the threat it poses.

What Is the Origin of Adjudication?

According to Dictionary, the word adjudication has been used since Middle English between 1685 and 1695. This word comes from the Late Latin word adjudication, which comes from the stem adjudicatio

This comes from the Latin word adjucatus, the past participle of the Latin adjudicare. This word also gives us words like judge and is paired with the root word ad, meaning toward. When we look at the roots of words, this can help us decipher their meaning. Since the word adjudication has the same root as the word judge, we can infer that this word has something to do with judgment or judging.

Many words have Latin or Greek roots. If you are trying to get better at knowing what words mean without looking up their definitions, you can try studying the roots of different words. When you learn what different roots mean and how roots, prefixes, and suffixes are put together, you can then decipher what certain words mean. Learning the roots of different words is also a great way to become a better speller.

What Are Translations of Adjudication?

The word adjudication is not only used in English but also has translations into numerous other languages. If you are trying to discuss the types of legal proceedings with a person who does not speak English, you can use this list of translations of adjudication from Nice Translator to communicate. How many of these translations of adjudication do you already know?

  • Catalan: adjudicació
  • Japanese: adj adj
  • Chinese (PRC): 裁决
  • Icelandic: dómgreind
  • Portuguese (Brazil): adjudicação
  • Swedish: bedömning
  • Hebrew: שְׁפִיטָה
  • Slovak: rozhodnutie
  • Malay: adjudikasi.
  • Spanish: adjudicación
  • Lithuanian: sprendimas
  • Dutch: toewijzing
  • Slovenian: sodišče
  • Greek: επιδίκαση
  • Marathi: निर्णय
  • Latvian: nolēmums
  • Danish: bedømmelse.
  • German: Entscheidung
  • Kannada: ತೀರ್ಮಾನಿಸುವುದು
  • Chinese (Taiwan): 裁決
  • Telugu: న్యాయనిర్ణయం
  • Gujarati: ન્યાયનિર્ણય
  • Thai: คำตัดสิน
  • Amharic: ፍርግርግ
  • Bulgarian: Решение
  • Croatian: presuda
  • Basque: adidazpen
  • French: arbitrage
  • Polish: wyrok
  • Tamil: தீர்ப்பு
  • Bengali: বিচারপতি
  • Italian: aggiudicazione
  • Serbian: пресуда
  • Indonesian: pengadilan
  • Portuguese (Portugal): adjudicação
  • Norwegian: vurdering
  • Hungarian: ítélet
  • Welsh: ddyfarniad
  • Swahili: kuhukumiwa
  • Ukrainian: суддя
  • Finnish: tuomio
  • Russian: судебное решение
  • Urdu: معاہدے
  • Turkish: karar verme
  • Arabic: الحكم
  • Vietnamese: phán quyết.
  • Korean: 판결
  • Czech: rozhodnutí
  • Romanian: adjudecare
  • Estonian: lahendamine
  • Hindi: न्यायिक निर्णय
  • Malayalam: വിധിന്യായ

What Are Synonyms of the Word Adjudication?

The word adjudication can refer to a specific type of legal proceeding, it can also refer to a judgment or ruling. However, if you are planning on using the word adjudication in a general sense, this could be confusing to some people.

Therefore, it is a good idea to know synonyms of the word adjudication. If someone is confused by what you mean by adjudication, you can utilize one of the below synonyms of adjudication from Power Thesaurus to clarify. 

How many of the below synonyms of adjudication do you know?

  • adjudgment
  • appraisal
  • appreciation
  • arbitrage
  • arbitral
  • arbitrament
  • arbitrate
  • arbitration
  • arbitrement
  • assessment
  • award
  • belief
  • bottom line
  • call
  • choice
  • comment
  • compromise
  • conciliation
  • conclusion
  • consideration
  • conviction
  • decide
  • decision
  • decisions
  • decree
  • decrees
  • determination
  • estimate
  • estimation
  • evaluation
  • finding
  • intervention
  • judge
  • judging
  • judgment
  • judgments
  • judicial decision
  • mediation
  • mediatorship
  • negotiation
  • officiating
  • opinion
  • order
  • pronouncement
  • refereeing
  • resolution
  • review
  • rule
  • ruling
  • rulings
  • sentence
  • settlement
  • trial
  • verdict
  • verdict

Conclusion

Adjudication is a judgment or legal ruling commonly used in the court system to refer to a type of legal proceeding similar to arbitration. However, instead of the ruling taking place between two private parties, a government judge is appointed to the case. The word adjudication can also be used in a more general sense to refer to any sort of judgment or ruling, but this usage is less common.

Sources:

  1. Adjudication synonyms – 320 Words and Phrases for Adjudication | Power Thesaurus 
  2. Adjudication Definition | Investopedia 
  3. Adjudication | Nice Translator
  4. Ad Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com