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Supreme Court

Supreme Court

656 3.1
The highest court in the United States that makes final decisions for all other courts
  • proper noun
  • /səˈprim kɔrt/
  • US
translation icon : Corte Suprema
  • On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery's bus rules were unconstitutional.
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • Supreme Court decision
  • a Supreme Court justice

And then once they stack the Supreme Court, they'll change the Constitution.

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Examples

  • Many pivotal rulings in American history have come from the Supreme Court.

  • We'll take this all the way to the Supreme Court.

  • I do believe under this US Supreme Court, we'll win.

  • The question is one, will the Supreme Court let this live?

  • Seven months later the Supreme Court agreed.

  • Then it goes to the Supreme Court where the judge will take a decision.

  • Congress is still in session, and the Supreme Court has yet to hear your case.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • I'll fight it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, and win.

  • Three years ago, the Supreme Court said we have to integrate the schools.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • This morning the Supreme Court recognized that the constitution guarantees marriage equality and slowly made an entire country realize that love is love.

Synonyms

United States Supreme Court
vsSupreme Court
  • Formal
22 3.3

The highest court in the United States that decides important national cases and reviews lower court decisions

is the same institution but named in a shorter simpler form
9 2.7

The highest court in the United States that decides important questions about the law for the whole country

is the same institution but uses a shorter common name

How Authoritative

Supreme Court
  • US
656 3.1
high court
  • UK
46 4.5
court
  • Formal
1.4
tribunal
  • Formal
84 7.4
panel
423 3.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

supreme + court

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'supreme' (highest) + 'court' (place where judges decide cases), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes the highest-level court. This formation is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Cour suprême, Tribunal Supremo), and although it is a proper name in some countries, the underlying meaning remains transparent to B1 learners.

Etymology

Supreme Court comes from the word supreme, meaning 'highest', and court, meaning a place where judges meet. So it is the court above all others and means the 'highest' or 'final authority' for legal decisions.