Word.ws English Dictionary

trials by ordeal

trials by ordeal is the plural of trial by ordeal.

Meaning of trial by ordeal

Noun

trial by ordeal (countable and uncountable, plural trials by ordeal)

  1. An archaic practice by which a person accused of a crime could prove their innocence by their survival of physically painful tests.
    • Along with trial by ordeal, hanging was the most effective deterrent that could be devised in an age without police or prisons.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 175

Questions about trials by ordeal

What is trials by ordeal the plural of?
Trials by ordeal is the plural of trial by ordeal.

Words near trials by ordeal in the dictionary

  1. trials and errors
  2. trials and tribulations
  3. trials by combat
  4. trials by fire
  5. trials by media
  6. trials by ordeal
  7. trials de novo
  8. trials of void
  9. trialuminium
  10. trialumino
  11. trialware

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trials by ordeal (page history and authors); trial by ordeal (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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