Supreme Court
- proper noun
- /səˈprim kɔrt/
- US
- 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.
- And then once they stack the Supreme Court, they'll change the Constitution.
- It's that simple, something that the Supreme Court has allowed to most Americans.
- All right, well, how many Supreme Court justices are there?
- One of them that comes to mind is the Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby.
- These are things that you actually find in his Supreme Court opinions.
- You know, the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act.
- I do believe under this US Supreme Court, we'll win.
- And that is why, that is why we now have a Supreme Court that she loathes.
- Big mistake, Supreme Court, big mistake.
- She dies in the interim, but the Supreme Court let's her husband.
- Incredible that that same year though, we lost two Supreme Court Justice seats.
Examples
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Many pivotal rulings in American history have come from the Supreme Court.
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We'll take this all the way to the Supreme Court.
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I do believe under this US Supreme Court, we'll win.
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The question is one, will the Supreme Court let this live?
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Seven months later the Supreme Court agreed.
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Then it goes to the Supreme Court where the judge will take a decision.
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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.
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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
The highest court in the United States that decides important national cases and reviews lower court decisions
The highest court in the United States that decides important questions about the law for the whole country
How Authoritative
- US
- UK
- Formal
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
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.