defendant
/dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/
defendant adjective: serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
Adjective
defendant (comparative more defendant, superlative most defendant)
- Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
- Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
To line and new repair our towns of...1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
Noun
defendant (plural defendants)
- In civil proceedings, the party responding to the complaint; one who is sued and called upon to make satisfaction for a wrong complained of by another.
- 404(b)—including a series of domestic abuse incidents defendant perpetrated against victim, a PFA against defendant by victim, and other third-party PFAs entered against defendant to protect other women—as well as evidence from[…]2019 November 29, Daniel J. Anders, Bobby Ochoa III, Ohlbaum on the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence, LexisNexis, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- respondent
- In criminal proceedings, the accused.
- Unintended mathwashing occurs when the algorithm is left unchecked, and, learning from historical data, amplifies social bias. The U.S. justice system uses an algorithm called COMPAS to determine a criminal's likelihood to re-offend. COMPAS has been proven by Pro Publica to predict that black...2018 January 29, Sophie Kleber, “As AI Meets the Reputation Economy, We're All Being Silently Judged”, in Harvard Business Review, Brighton, M.A.: Harvard Business Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
defendant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
defendant in Hindi
- person prosecuted or sued, the accused
- अभियुक्त abhiyukt, प्रतिवादी prativādī
- party responding to the complaint
- प्रतिवादी prativādī
defendant in Tamil
- பிரதிவாதி
defendant in Urdu
- person prosecuted or sued, the accused
- مدعا علیہ
defendant in Bengali
- person prosecuted or sued, the accused
- মুদ্দালেহ muddaleho
More languagesFewer languages
- defendant in Telugu
- ప్రతివాది prativādi
- defendant in Malayalam
- പ്രതി prati
- defendant in Kannada
- ಪ್ರತಿವಾದಿ, ಆರೋಪಿ
- defendant in Odia
- ପ୍ରତିବାଦୀ
- defendant in Nepali
- प्रतिबादी
- defendant in Arabic
- مُدَّعًى عَلَيْهِ muddaʕan ʕalayhi, مُتَّهَم muttaham, مُتَّهَمَة muttahama
- defendant in Indonesian
- tergugat
- defendant in Persian
- خوانده xânde
- defendant in Thai
- จำเลย jam-ləəi
- defendant in Vietnamese
- bị cáo, bị đơn
Examples of defendant in a sentence
- Has the disco come in from the defendants yet? We sent them requests almost six weeks ago.
- It is now time for the jury to deliberate the guilt of the defendant.
- The defendant pleaded insanity in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.
Synonyms of defendant
Antonyms
Forms of defendant
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more defendant |
| superlative | most defendant |
| alternative form (obsolete) | defendaunt |
| Noun | |
| plural | defendants |
Origin of defendant
From Middle English defendaunt (“defending; defending in a suit”), borrowed from Old French defendant, present participle of defendre, from Latin dēfendere.
From Middle English defendaunt (“defendant in a suit; defender”), borrowed from Old French defendant, nominalisation of defendant; see above.
Words formed from defendant
Questions about defendant
- What does defendant mean?
- Defendant means serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
- What is defendant in Hindi?
- Defendant in Hindi is अभियुक्त (abhiyukt), प्रतिवादी (prativādī). See Defendant meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is defendant?
- Defendant can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce defendant?
- Defendant is pronounced /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/.
Words near defendant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: defendant (page history and authors); defendant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ప్రతివాది (Telugu) (page history and authors); defendant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); defendant (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); defendant (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-defendant.ogg.
Cite this entry: “defendant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/defendant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.