judge
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "judge", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "judge" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "judge" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
judge is aEnglishnoun. It means: A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice. Pronounced /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/. It ranks #1,193 in English word frequency. Often confused with jug and June.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | judge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,193 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for judge is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,193 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for judge, with forms such as "jduge", "jjudge", and "juddge". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "jug", "June", "Judy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English juge, jugge, from Old French juge, from Latin iūdex. Displaced native Middle English deme (from Old English dēma (“judge”)) and demere (from Old English dēmere (“judge”)), see also deemer, deemster. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is judge, spelled J-U-D-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
- 2A person who decides the fate of someone or something that has been called into question.
- 3A person officiating at a sports event, a contest, or similar; referee.
- 4A person who evaluates something or forms an opinion.
- 5A shophet, a temporary leader appointed in times of crisis in ancient Israel.
Etymology
From Middle English juge, jugge, from Old French juge, from Latin iūdex. Displaced native Middle English deme (from Old English dēma (“judge”)) and demere (from Old English dēmere (“judge”)), see also deemer, deemster.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jduge,jjudge,juddge,judeg,judgge,jugde,ujdge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for judge
Misspelling Variants of "judge"
Frequency rank: #1,193 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "judge"?
What does "judge" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "judge"?
How do you pronounce "judge"?
What is the origin of the word "judge"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter J in our English index: