certiorari means A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear. It carries an Arena rating of 1295, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, certiorari ranks #179 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #658 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,388 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,921 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
certiorari is pronounced /ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/.
Why “certiorari” is a great word
A discretionary writ by which a superior court calls up for review the record of a proceeding in a lower tribunal. Its name is a fragment of the Latin judicial command *certiorārī volumus* ("we wish to be made certain"), from the present passive infinitive of *certiōrō* ("to make certain"), from *certior*, comparative of *certus* ("certain"). Unlike an "appeal," which is a party's right, or a "mandamus," which compels an official to act, certiorari is a sovereign privilege, a selective reaching down. It is the quiet, weighty envelope from on high; the single file extracted from a teetering stack of petitions; the raised judicial eyebrow that can halt a state's machinery. It is the mechanism that acknowledges most wrongs must stand, so that the law may move with certitude.
Etymology
From the present passive infinitive of Latin certiōrō (“to make certain”), from the words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorārī volumus (“[we] wish to be made certain”).
noun
- A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear.
- A grant of review of a government action by a court with discretion to make such a review.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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