Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Referee |
RefereeNoun1. (sports) the chief official (as in boxing or American football) who is expected to ensure fair play. 2. Someone who reads manuscripts and judges their suitability for publication. Verb1. Be a referee or umpire. 2. Evaluate professionally a colleague's work. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "referee" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1823. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | For the purpose of the telecommunications administrations, a regulator entrusted with licencing, control of type approval and binding specifications, frequency allocation, and surveillance of usage conditions. Source: European Union. (references) |
Occupations | Reviews previously adjudicated social welfare tax or eligibility issues, as member of appeals board, utilizing knowledge of regulations, policy, and precedent decisions: Researches laws, regulations, policies, and precedent decisions to prepare for appeal hearings. Schedules hearing, issues subpoenas, counsels parties, and administers oaths to prepare for formal hearing. Conducts hearing to obtain information and evidence relative to disposition of appeal. Questions witnesses and rules on exceptions, motions, and admissibility of evidence. Analyzes evidence and applicable law, regulations, policy, and precedent decisions to determine appropriate and permissible conclusions. Prepares written decision. May hear disability insurance appeals and be designated Disability-Insurance-Hearing Officer (government ser.). May hear unemployment insurance appeals and be designated Unemployment-Insurance-Hearing Officer (government ser.). (references) |
| Directs activities at automobile or motorcycle racetrack: Determines qualifying order of vehicles for each race based on trial event results or by drawing numbers. Assigns STARTERS (amuse. & rec.) to position on track. Controls traffic to ensure only authorized number of vehicles are in pit. Directs vehicles to assigned places in pit. Ascertains legality of pit stops according to rules set by sanctioning body authorizing race. Consults with SCORERS (amuse. & rec.) to resolve scoring disputes. Determines penalties to be assessed for rules violation. May inspect vehicles and drivers for safety equipment, such as seat belts, harnesses, and helmets. (references) | |
| Officiates at sporting events: Observes actions of participants to detect infractions of rules. Decides disputable matters according to established regulations. When concerned only with determining validity of goals, finish line order, or out-of-bound plays, may be designated Finish Judge (amuse. & rec.); Goal Umpire (amuse. & rec.); Line Umpire (amuse. & rec.). (references) | |
Publishing & Graphic Arts | Called upon by editors to aid in the assessment of the merits of material offered for publication. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: RefereeSynonyms: reader (n), ref (n), reviewer (n), peer review (v), umpire (v). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: umpiring (sports & leisure). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Consignee | Negotiator, go-between; middleman; under agent, employe; servant; referee, arbitrator;. (judge). |
Judge | Jurat, assessor; arbiter, arbitrator; umpire; referee, referendary; revising barrister; domesman; censor; (critic); barmaster, ephor; grand juror, grand juryman; juryman, talesman. |
Judgment | Judge, umpire; arbiter, arbitrator; asessor, referee. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Referee |
| English words defined with "referee": break ♦ call ♦ face-off, fair ♦ Judge-Advocate General, just ♦ line judge, linesman ♦ Referendary, remain down ♦ take the count, technical knockout, TKO ♦ umpire. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "referee": pouvoir couvrant. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "referee": Conferee. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The only arithmetic he ever got was hearing the referee count up to ten. (On the Waterfront; writing credit: Malcolm Johnson; Budd Schulberg) No referee. (The Karate Kid, Part II; writing credit: Robert Mark Kamen) | |
Clever | Having one child makes you a parent; having two, you are a referee. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Referee (1922) Referee (1920) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | "Turkey" and "Italy" sit exhausted in the ring while "referee time" counts with his watch. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Two cock-fighters and referee at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Referee whistle. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Cape Verde | The decision of the single referee or the arbitration committee is final and cannot be appealed. (references) |
Cape Verde | Disputes between foreign investors and the government will be settled either through a single referee or an arbitration commission. (references) | |
Trade | Burma | If they cannot agree, they can appoint a referee. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Margaret Thatcher | Obviously. HE has his own industrial career. He's also a person in great demand. He's also very keen on sports, he's very keen on rugby football. He was a rugby football referee in his spare time at one time. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Referee" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.39% of the time. "Referee" is used about 1,035 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.39% | 1,008 | 7,314 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.93% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.39% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.29% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,035 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "referee": be a referee for smb. ♦ referee in bankruptcy. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "referee": referee-like, referee-of-the-year. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "referee"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | gjyqtar (arbiter, judge, magistrate, ordinary, umpire), gjykoj (adjudge, adjudicate, arbitrate, consider, damn, daresay, denounce, impeach, judge, look in the matter, reason, think about, try, umpire), arbitroj, arbitër (arbiter, arbitrator, judge, overman, umpire). (various references) | |
Arabic | قام بمهمة الحكم, حكم في مباراة, حكم (administer, administration, arbiter, arbitration, ascendancy, authority, award, control, decide, decision, deliverance, determination, dispensation, doom, fasten, fastening, find, finding, govern, hand down, judge, judgement, judgment, opinion, reckon, regimen, rule, ruling, run, sway, umpire, verdict). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | съдия (judge, jurist, juror, justice, justiciary, magistrate, ordinary), рецензент (reviewer), рецензирам (notice, review), реферирам (officiate, umpire), рефер съм (judge), рефер (judge, umpire), арбитър (arbiter, arbitrator, high priest, judge, moderator, umpire), лице което дава референции. (various references) | |
Chinese | 裁判员, 裁判 (act as referee, judge, judgment, umpire). (various references) | |
Czech | rozhodèí (arbiter, arbitral, judge, umpire), soudce (adjudicator, judge, justice, umpire). (various references) | |
Danish | dommer (judge). (various references) | |
Dutch | scheidsrechter (arbiter, arbitrator, umpire), arbiter (arbiter, arbitrator, umpire). (various references) | |
Esperanto | arbitracianto (arbiter, arbitrator, umpire). (various references) | |
Farsi | داوری کردن (Adjudge, Adjudicate, Arbiter, Judge, Umpire), داورمسابقات شدن , داورمسابقات (Umpire), داور (Arbiter, Juror). (various references) | |
Finnish | tuomari (arbitrator Bachelor of Laws, judge, justice, L L. B, magistrate, umpire). (various references) | |
French | arbitre. (various references) | |
German | Schiedsrichter (adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, judge, referees, umpire). (various references) | |
Greek | διαιτητής (arbiter). (various references) | |
Hebrew | שופט (judge, justice, umpire), פוסק (arbiter). (various references) | |
Hungarian | játékvezető (director, quizmaster, umpire), bíró (adjudicator, judge, justice, magistrate, umpire). (various references) | |
Indonesian | wasit (arbiter, arbitrator, umpire). (various references) | |
Italian | arbitro (adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, decider, ref, umpire), giudice (adjudicator, arbiter, decider, judge, justice, magistrate). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 審判 (judgement, refereeing, trial, umpire). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | すいせ"しゃ, レフェリー , し"ば"い" (umpire), し"ば" (judgement, new record, refereeing, trial, umpire), し"ぱ"い" (umpire), し"ぱ"やく (umpire), し"ぱ" (brand new, infringement, invasion, judgement, refereeing, sales on credit, trial, umpire, violation). (various references) | |
Korean | 퍼리. (various references) | |
Manx | fer reaghys (umpire), eddyr-chiartaghey (arbitrate, arbitration, umpire), eddyr-chiartagh (umpire). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | efereeray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | árbitro (adjudicator, adjuster, arbiter, judge, moderator, settler, umpire). (various references) | |
Romanian | arbitru (arbiter, arbitrator, moderator, ref, referendary, umpire), arbitra (arbitrate, umpire). (various references) | |
Russian | арбитр (arbiter, arbitrager, arbitrator, judge, moderator, overman, umpire). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sudija (arbiter, beak, judge, umpire), biti sudija, arbitar (arbalest, arbiter, arbitrator). (various references) | |
Spanish | árbitro (arbiter, arbitrator, judge, mediator, moderator, ref, referees, referendary, umpire). (various references) | |
Swedish | domare i idrott. (various references) | |
Thai | ผู้ตั"สิน (มวย, ฟุตบอล), ทำหน้าที่เป็นผู้ตั"สิน. (various references) | |
Turkish | raportör (rapporteur, reporter), hakemlik etmek (adjudicate, arbitrate, judge, umpire), hakem (adjudicator, arbiter, arbitral, arbitrator, judge, umpire), eksper (expert), bilirkişilik yapmak, bilirkişi (authority, expert, expert witness, friend of the court, surveyor, valuator, valuer). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | судити (adjudicate, censure, judge, officiate, umpire), рефері (ref), арбітр (arbiter, arbitrator, daysman, judge, moderator, overman). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | arbiter. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "referee": refereed, refereeing, referees. (additional references) | |
| |
"Referee" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: feuferme, keeerree, Rauferei, recerie, Reederei, reery, refaree, refear, refere, refered, Refereee, refereez, referer, referre, referree, refery, reffered, reffery, refree, regere, Renfree, repere, rererie, reterrage, reveree, Rfereee. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "referee" (pronounced re'ferē") |
| 3 | -f er ē" | conferee. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-e-e-f-r-r" | |
-1 letter: reefer. | |
-2 letters: freer, frere, refer. | |
-3 letters: fere, free, reef. | |
-4 letters: ere, err, fee, fer, ree, ref. | |
-5 letters: ef, er, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-e-e-f-r-r" | |
+1 letter: refereed, referees, refreeze. | |
+2 letters: prefreeze, reference, refreezes. | |
+3 letters: preference, prefreezes, refereeing, referenced, references. | |
+4 letters: freehearted, freewheeler, preferences, refreshened. | |
+5 letters: freewheelers, hereinbefore, interference, misreference. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
