justification

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

justification

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English justificacioun, justification, from Middle French justification, from Late Latin iustificationem, justificationem < iustificatio, from iustifico, from Latin iustus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌd͡ʒʌstɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

justification (countable and uncountable, plural justifications)

1. (countable) A reason, explanation, or excuse which someone believes provides convincing, morally acceptable support for behavior or for a belief or occurrence.
   • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 8 May 2025:

     The growing use of social media to spread anger and dissent in the Arab world has been hailed by western governments as one of the chief justifications for a completely unfettered internet. The US is reportedly funding the secret rollout of technology in Iran in an effort to undermine internet censors in the country.

2. (Christianity, uncountable) The forgiveness of sin.
   • 1999, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     […] to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

3. (typography, uncountable) The alignment of text to the left margin (left justification), the right margin (right justification), or both margins (full justification).

Antonyms

• condemnation
• conviction

Derived terms

• justificational
• justificationism
• justificationist
• overjustification
• rejustification
• self-justification

Related terms

• acquittal
• exculpation
• justify

Translations

reason, explanation, or excuse

Albanian: shpjegim (sq) m, arsyetim (sq) m Amharic: please add this translation if you can Arabic: تَبْرِير m (tabrīr) Armenian: արդարացում (hy) (ardaracʻum) Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: please add this translation if you can Azerbaijani: bəraət (az) Belarusian: апраўда́нне n (aprawdánnje) Bulgarian: извине́ние (bg) n (izvinénie), оправда́ние (bg) n (opravdánie) Catalan: justificació f Chinese: Mandarin: 正當化 / 正当化 (zhèngdànghuà) Czech: ospravedlnění n, zdůvodnění n, odůvodnění n Danish: please add this translation if you can Dutch: rechtvaardiging (nl) f Esperanto: apologio Estonian: please add this translation if you can Ewe: afiatsotso Finnish: oikeutus (fi) French: justification (fr) f Georgian: გამართლება (gamartleba) German: Rechtfertigung (de) f, Begründung (de) f Greek: δικαιολογία (el) f (dikaiología), αιτιολόγηση (el) f (aitiológisi), απολόγηση f (apológisi) Gujarati: please add this translation if you can Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: indoklás (hu) Irish: réasún m Italian: giustificazione (it) f, ragione (it) f, spiegazione (it) f, scusa (it) f Japanese: 正当化 (ja) (せいとうか, seitōka) Kazakh: please add this translation if you can Khmer: please add this translation if you can Korean: 정당화(正當化) (jeongdanghwa) Kyrgyz: please add this translation if you can Latvian: please add this translation if you can Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Malay: please add this translation if you can Malayalam: please add this translation if you can Maori: parahautanga Occitan: justificacion (oc) f Odia: please add this translation if you can Persian: توجیه (fa) (towjih), بهانه (fa) (bahâne) Polish: usprawiedliwienie (pl) n, uzasadnienie (pl) n Portuguese: justificativa (pt) f, justificação f, explicação (pt) f Punjabi: please add this translation if you can Romanian: justificare (ro) f, justificație (ro) f Russian: оправда́ние (ru) n (opravdánije) Slovak: zdôvodnenie n, odôvodnenie (sk) n Spanish: justificación (es) f, motivación (es) f Swedish: rättfärdigande (sv), rättfärdiggörelse c Tagalog: pangangatwiran, paghuhustipika Tajik: please add this translation if you can Tamil: please add this translation if you can Telugu: please add this translation if you can Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: haklı çıkma, savunma (tr), temize çıkma, gerekçe (tr), mazeret (tr), müstenidat (tr) Ukrainian: ви́правдання n (výpravdannja) Urdu: please add this translation if you can Uzbek: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can Welsh: cyfiawnhad m Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

forgiveness of sin

Finnish: vanhurskauttaminen Swedish: rättfärdiggörelse c

text alignment

Armenian: տողաշտկում (hy) (toġaštkum) Bulgarian: подравня́ване n (podravnjávane) Czech: zarovnání n Finnish: tasaus (fi), suljenta French: justification (fr) f Georgian: გასწორება (gasc̣oreba) German: Ausrichtung (de) f, Blocksatz (de) m (print), Zeilenfall m Greek: στοίχιση (el) f (stoíchisi) Hungarian: igazítás (hu) Italian: giustificazione (it) f Japanese: 行揃え (ぎょうそろえ, gyōsoroe), ジャスティフィケーション (ja) (jyasutifikēshon) Polish: justyfikacja f Portuguese: justificação f Russian: выра́внивание (ru) n (vyrávnivanije) Spanish: justificación (es) f Swedish: justering (sv)

See also

• warrantedness
• worthwhileness

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French, borrowed from Late Latin justificationem < iustificatio, from iustifico, from Latin iustus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒys.ti.fi.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

justification f (plural justifications)

1. justification (reason, excuse, etc.)

Related terms

• justifier

Further reading

• “justification”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Late Latin iustificationem, justificationem.

Noun

justification f (plural justifications)

1. justification (all senses)

Descendants

• → English: justification
• French: justification