Arbitration

//ˌɑː.bɪˈtɹeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act or process of arbitrating. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the act of deciding as an arbiter; giving authoritative judgment wordnet
  3. 3
    A process through which two or more parties use an arbitrator or arbiter in order to resolve a dispute. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    (law) the hearing and determination of a dispute by an impartial referee agreed to by both parties (often used to settle disputes between labor and management) wordnet
  5. 5
    In general, a form of justice where both parties designate a person whose ruling they will accept formally. More specifically in Market Anarchist (market anarchy) theory, arbitration designates the process by which two agencies pre-negotiate a set of common rules in anticipation of cases where a customer from each agency is involved in a dispute. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
arbitramentarbitrementchoicedecisiondiscriminationjudicature

Example

More examples

"With arbitration, judgement is usually passed in six months' time."

Etymology

From Middle English arbitracion, borrowed from Old French arbitration, from Latin arbitratio, from arbitrari (“to arbitrate, judge”); see arbitrate.

Related phrases

arbitration of exchangependulum arbitrationarbitration clausemarket anarchy

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.