justify
//ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ//
Forms
- present (v1)
- justify
- past (v2)
- justified
- past participle (v3)
- justified
- present participle
- justifying
- 3rd person singular
- justifies
Definitions
1.To provide an acceptable explanation for.
- Paying too much for car insurance is not justified.
- How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
2.To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action; to warrant.
- Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
- Preservation of two railway routes between Belfast and Derry could no longer be justified and one of them must go.
- Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government, under an abstract constitutional right to do so.
3.To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
- The text will look better justified.
4.To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.
- I cannot justify whom the law condemns.
- And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2643
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
Etymology
From Middle English justifien
From Old French justifier
From Late Latin justificare (“make just”)
From Latin justus, iustus (“just”) + ficare (“make”)
From facere, equivalent to just + -ify.