justified
adjective
jus·ti·fied
ˈjə-stə-ˌfīd 
1
: having or shown to have a just, right, or reasonable basis
a justified punishment
a justified reputation for toughness
Such work calls for a combination of training and talent that few can lay justified claim to …—
Bernard Knox
2
typography
a
: aligned evenly at the margin
a justified line of text
In justified composition, where the type must be flush with both the left and right margins, the machine will automatically expand or condense the word space or hyphenate end-of-line words to fill up the line measure.—Ray Blair and Thomas M. Destree
b
: made even by spacing lines of text
a document with justified margins
Examples of justified in a Sentence
in a well-justified ruling the court voted unanimously to overturn the law
the use of force to capture the armed fugitive was fully justified
Recent Examples on the Web
The killing of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday set off a clash between federal and state officials over whether the shooting appeared justified and whether a Minnesota law enforcement agency had jurisdiction to investigate.
—Russ Bynum, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2026
There’s no evidence at all that this was a justified shooting.
—Maggie Vespa, NBC news, 8 Jan. 2026
Earthjustice and the Sierra Club filed a legal challenge against the DOE's order in Michigan, saying the use of 202(c) was unlawful without a justified emergency.
—Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 24 Dec. 2025
But let’s stick to the important subject at hand, which is that justified - or not - McDaniel has outlasted all but one of his contemporaries.
—Miami Herald, 23 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for justified
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Cite this Entry
“Justified.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justified. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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