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Glite Dictionary
probate court

probate court

4 7.6
A court that checks wills and manages a person's property after death
  • noun
  • /ˈproʊbeɪt kɔrt/
  • Formal
translation icon : tribunal de sucesiones
  • Attorneys are readying for a battle in the probate court known as Surrogate's Court in Manhattan.
  • probate court in Denver
  • county probate court
  • Ohio probate court

A couple of weeks later, the probate court judge told Sally.

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Examples

  • Dimick was found guilty in probate court of fraud and embezzlement.

    Blog text (7)

  • To withstand future scrutiny by the probate court and the state attorney general's office, Hammer had his client evaluated both by her own physician and by a non-treating psychiatrist.

    Academic text (2002)

  • I went into town on Monday to sign some documents at the lawyer's office, which had to be filed with the probate court.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Get us into probate court as quickly as possible, see if we can get Judge Hardin.

    The Genesis Code (2010)

  • So I went into probate court and secured guardianship.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Probate is a complicated process and normally requires the services of an attorney who regularly practices in probate court.

    Blog text (7)

  • And so if you leave a will, the will is probated, meaning that the probate court enforces the will.

  • The probate court denied the petitioner's request for an abortion, finding her to be incompetent to make decisions concerning such procedures.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The Orange County, Calif., probate court is, "if not paperless, paper on demand," says Alan Slater, the superior court's executive officer.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The probate court validated the deceased's will and oversaw the distribution of assets.

Synonyms

court
vsprobate court
  • Formal
∞ 1.4

A place where a judge hears and decides legal cases

is a specialized body that validates wills and supervises estate administration after death

Surface Forms

probate court singular
probate courts plural

Morphology

probate + court

The compound is directly compositional: if a learner knows 'probate' (the legal process of proving wills) and 'court' (a forum for legal decisions), they can infer that a 'probate court' is the court that handles probate matters. The noun+court pattern is a regular, cross-linguistic way to name specialized courts, so the meaning is predictable rather than idiomatic.

Etymology

Probate court gets its name from the old word probate, which meant 'to prove'. In this court people bring a dead person's will so the judge can check it is real and then decide who gets the property.