Phrase guide

lay judge

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A lay person who acts as (or is) a judge, or who assists a (professional) judge, in a court proceeding (especially in jurisdictions which do not use juries).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From lay + judge.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 國民法官 /国民法官 (guómín fǎguān) — lay person who is judge
  • Chinese Mandarin: 人民陪審員 /人民陪审员 (rénmín péishěnyuán) — lay person who is judge
  • Czech: přísedící — lay person who is judge
  • Danish: domsmand — lay person who is judge
  • Finnish: lautamies — lay person who is judge
  • German: Laienrichter — lay person who is judge
  • German: Schöffe — lay person who is judge
  • Hungarian: ülnök — lay person who is judge
  • Japanese: 裁判員 (saiban'in) — lay person who is judge
  • Norwegian Bokmål: meddommer — lay person who is judge
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: meddommar — lay person who is judge
  • Swedish: nämndeman — lay person who is judge