Definition and Usage of Verdict | Generated by AI
Verdict means a decision or judgment, most commonly used in these two main ways:
- In law (most frequent and formal meaning)
The official decision made by a jury (or sometimes a judge) at the end of a trial.- Criminal cases: “guilty” or “not guilty”
- Civil cases: “liable” or “not liable”, and often includes the amount of money (damages) to be paid
Examples: - The jury reached a guilty verdict after three days of deliberation.
- The court announced its verdict in favor of the plaintiff and awarded $2.5 million.
- In everyday language (informal/opinion sense)
Someone’s personal opinion or judgment about something after thinking about it or reviewing the facts.
Examples:- What’s your verdict on the new iPhone? → What do you think of it?
- The critics’ verdict was overwhelmingly positive.
- The voters delivered their verdict in the election.
The word comes from Latin roots meaning roughly “true saying” or “true declaration” (ver = true + dictum = saying).
In short:
- Court/legal context → jury/judge’s final decision
- Casual context → your personal conclusion or opinion
Which meaning were you seeing when you asked? 😄