Word.ws English Dictionary

magistrates' court

magistrates' court noun: in England and Wales, a lower court of law that deals with less serious offences, as well as initial hearings for serious offences prior to referring these to the Crown Court. Cases are heard by two or three magistrates, or sometimes a district judge, without a jury.

Noun

magistrates' court (plural magistrates' courts)

  1. In England and Wales, a lower court of law that deals with less serious offences, as well as initial hearings for serious offences prior to referring these to the Crown Court. Cases are heard by two or three magistrates, or sometimes a district judge, without a jury.
  2. A similar court of law in various other countries and jurisdictions.

Forms of magistrates' court

pluralmagistrates' courts

Questions about magistrates' court

What does magistrates' court mean?
Magistrates' court means in England and Wales, a lower court of law that deals with less serious offences, as well as initial hearings for serious offences prior to referring these to the Crown Court. Cases are heard by two or three magistrates, or sometimes a district judge, without a jury.
What part of speech is magistrates' court?
Magistrates' court is a noun.
What is the plural of magistrates' court?
The plural of magistrates' court is magistrates' courts.

Words near magistrates' court in the dictionary

  1. magistrand
  2. magistrands
  3. magistras
  4. magistrate
  5. magistrates
  6. magistrates' court
  7. magistrates' courts
  8. magistrateship
  9. magistrateships
  10. magistratic
  11. magistratical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: magistrates' court (page history and authors). 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.

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