Word.ws English Dictionary

referee

UK/ˌɹɛf.əˈɹiː//ˌɹɛf.əˈɹi/

referee noun: an umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game.

referee: an umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game
Image: Jason Gulledge, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

referee (plural referees)

  1. An umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game.
    • The referee kicked Jim out of the game for fighting.
  2. A person who settles a dispute.
  3. (UK) A person who writes a letter of reference or provides a reference by phone call for someone. (In the UK such a person is sometimes, and in the US the person is typically, referred to as a reference.)
    • Your application, along with letters from three referees, should be received by January 31.
  4. An expert who judges the manuscript of an article or book to decide if it should be published.

Verb

referee (third-person singular simple present referees, present participle refereeing, simple past and past participle refereed)

  1. To act as a referee.
    • He has to referee three hockey games this weekend.
    • She has to finish refereeing an article for Nature.

referee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

referee in Hindi

रेफरी, रेफ़री, रैफरी

referee in Tamil

நடுவர், நற்சான்றளிப்பவர்

referee in Marathi

रेफरी

referee in Urdu

فیصل
More languagesFewer languages
referee in Bengali
রেফারি, বিচারক
referee in Telugu
రిఫరీ, రెఫరీ, రిఫరీ చేయడం
referee in Malayalam
കായികമത്സരം നിയന്ത്രിക്കുന്നയാൾ, തർക്കം പരിഹരിക്കുന്നയാൾ, മദ്ധ്യസ്ഥൻ
referee in Kannada
ತೀರ್ಪುಗಾರ, ನಿರ್ಣಯಕಾರ, ರೆಫರೀ, ನಿರ್ಣಾಯಕ
referee in Punjabi
ਰੈਫਰੀ, ਰੈਫ਼ਰੀ
referee in Gujarati
રેફરી, રેફેરી, રેફ્રી
referee in Odia
ରେଫରୀ, ରେଫରି, ରେଫ୍ରି
referee in Nepali
रेफ्री, रेफरी, रेफरी गर्ने
referee in Arabic
حَكَم ḥakam
referee in Malay
pengadil, wasit
referee in Thai
ผู้ตัดสิน pûu-dtàt-sǐn
referee in Vietnamese
trọng tài

Examples of referee in a sentence

  • The opposing team's forward hooked me, but the referee didn't see it, so no penalty.
  • The referee had to spot the pink on the blue spot.
  • The referee stopped play because of an obstruction by the defender.

All 40 example sentences with referee

Forms of referee

Noun
pluralreferees
Verb
third-person singular presentreferees
present participlerefereeing
past participlerefereed
pastrefereed

Plural of referee: referees

Origin of referee

From Middle English [Term?], from past participle of Old French referer (“to relate, to refer”), from Latin referre (“to carry back, to report, to notify”); as if refer + -ee, that is, the person to whom something is referred for consideration.

Words formed from referee

Phrases with referee

Words that rhyme with referee

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about referee

What does referee mean?
Referee means an umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game.
What is referee in Hindi?
Referee in Hindi is रेफरी, रेफ़री, रैफरी. See Referee meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is referee?
Referee can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce referee?
Referee is pronounced /ˌɹɛf.əˈɹiː/ (UK).
What is the plural of referee?
The plural of referee is referees.

Words near referee in the dictionary

  1. referable
  2. referal
  3. referand
  4. referands
  5. refered
  6. referee
  7. referee assistant
  8. referee assistants
  9. referee's crease
  10. refereed
  11. refereeing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: referee (page history and authors); referee (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); referee (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); referee (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); referee (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); referee (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); referee (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); referee (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-referee.ogg.

Cite this entry: “referee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/referee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.