Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to justify
Participle: justified
Gerund: justifying
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | justify |
| you | justify |
| he;she;it | justifies |
| we | justify |
| you | justify |
| they | justify |
Perfect
| I | have justified |
| you | have justified |
| he;she;it | has justified |
| we | have justified |
| you | have justified |
| they | have justified |
Past
| I | justified |
| you | justified |
| he;she;it | justified |
| we | justified |
| you | justified |
| they | justified |
Pluperfect
| I | had justified |
| you | had justified |
| he;she;it | had justified |
| we | had justified |
| you | had justified |
| they | had justified |
Future
| I | will justify |
| you | will justify |
| he;she;it | will justify |
| we | will justify |
| you | will justify |
| they | will justify |
Future Perfect
| I | will have justified |
| you | will have justified |
| he;she;it | will have justified |
| we | will have justified |
| you | will have justified |
| they | will have justified |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | justify |
| you | justify |
| he;she;it | justify |
| we | justify |
| you | justify |
| they | justify |
Perfect
| I | have justified |
| you | have justified |
| he;she;it | have justified |
| we | have justified |
| you | have justified |
| they | have justified |
Imperfect
| I | justified |
| you | justified |
| he;she;it | justified |
| we | justified |
| you | justified |
| they | justified |
Pluperfect
| I | had justified |
| you | had justified |
| he;she;it | had justified |
| we | had justified |
| you | had justified |
| they | had justified |
Conditional
Present
| I | would justify |
| you | would justify |
| he;she;it | would justify |
| we | would justify |
| you | would justify |
| they | would justify |
Perfect
| I | would have justified |
| you | would have justified |
| he;she;it | would have justified |
| we | would have justified |
| you | would have justified |
| they | would have justified |
Imperative
| you | justify |
| we | Let's justify |
| you | justify |
Verbs conjugated like 'justify'
accompany,
acetify,
acidify,
adsignify,
affy,
alacrify,
alkalify,
ally,
amnesty,
amplify,
angelify,
anglicify,
anglify,
apology,
apply,
arefy,
argufy,
astony,
atrophy,
avowtry, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'justify'
cuntify,
cutify,
justice,
mistify,
mystify,
pestify,
pussify,
rejustify,
russify,
Russify,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
- excuse
- account, defend, vindicate, exonerate, warrant, acquit, absolve, mitigate
- maintain
- confirm, corroborate, warrant, contend, assert, claim, argue
Antonyms
- excuse
- condemn, inculpate, sentence, oblige
- maintain
- discontinue, quit, forsake, leave
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. c.1300, "to administer justice," also "to show (something) to be just or right," from O.Fr.
justifer, from L.
justificare "act justly toward, make just," from
justificus "dealing justly, righteous," from
justus "just" (see just (adj.)) + root of
facere "to do" (see factitious). Meaning "to make exact" (now largely restricted to typesetting) is from 1551.
2. From Middle English justifien, from Old French justifier, from Late Latin justificare (“make just”), from Latin justus, iustus (“just”) + ficare (“make”), from facere, equivalent to just + -ify. See: Old French '
justifier'.
Sample Sentences
-
How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
-
Paying too much for car insurance is not justified.
-
What in me is dark
-
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
-
That to the highth of this great Argument
-
I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,
-
And justifie the wayes of God to men. [1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
-
Like all public expenditure, Access for All has to compete with other deserving demands. For example, how can you justify spending a couple of million pounds installing lifts at a station such as Achnasheen, which has 2,420 annual users, when that sum would buy a life-saving machine for a hospital? How do you decide on a minimum number of annual station users to justify that expenditure? [2023 August 23, Anthony Lambert, “Expanding the family and disabled markets”, in RAIL, number 990, page 53:]
-
Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
-
Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government, under an abstract constitutional right to do so. [1861, Edward Everett, The Great Issues Now Before the Country, An oration delivered at the New York Academy of Music, July 4, 1861, New York: James G. Gregory, page 8:]
-
Preservation of two railway routes between Belfast and Derry could no longer be justified and one of them must go. [1956 May, “Transport in Ulster”, in Railway Magazine, page 280:]
-
The text will look better justified.
-
I cannot justify whom the law condemns. [1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:]
-
And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 13:39:]
-
She felt no need to justify herself for deciding not to invite him.
-
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:15:]
-
[…] I was equally unable to justify myself and unwilling to acknowledge my errors […] [1848, Anne Brontë, “Chapter 13”, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:]
-
She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been,
-
By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all;
-
When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge
-
She is thy very princess. [c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:]
-
[…] say
-
My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name
-
As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
-
Before her troth-plight: say’t and justify’t. [c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:]
-
J'USTIFYING BAIL, practice, is the production of bail in court, who there justify' themselves against the exception of the plaintiff. [1839, John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union, volume I, Philadelphia: T. & J.W. Johnson, page 557:]