Justification

//ˌd͡ʒʌstɪfɪˈkeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A reason, explanation, or excuse which someone believes provides convincing, morally acceptable support for behavior or for a belief or occurrence. countable

    "The growing use of social media to spread anger and dissent in the Arab world has been hailed by western governments as one of the chief justifications for a completely unfettered internet. The US is reportedly funding the secret rollout of technology in Iran in an effort to undermine internet censors in the country."

  2. 2
    the act of defending or explaining or making excuses for by reasoning wordnet
  3. 3
    The forgiveness of sin. uncountable

    "[…] to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ."

  4. 4
    something (such as a fact or circumstance) that shows an action to be reasonable or necessary wordnet
  5. 5
    The alignment of text to the left margin (left justification), the right margin (right justification), or both margins (full justification). uncountable
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  1. 6
    a statement in explanation of some action or belief wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
accountanswerapologeticapologiaapologybasis

Example

More examples

"It is without justification that money has been called one of the greatest inventions of man."

Etymology

From Middle English justificacioun, justification, from Middle French justification, from Late Latin iustificationem, justificationem < iustificatio, from iustifico, from Latin iustus.

Related phrases

self-justification

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