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deference

UK/ˈdɛfəɹəns/US/ˈdɛ.fɚ.əns/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,425 of 15,258leans written

Deference is polite yielding to somebody's rank or judgement. Out of deference, show deference, in deference to his age.

The fixed phrase is in deference to, which explains an action by whose feelings it spares. In law, judicial deference is a court declining to second-guess a decision it was not equipped to make.

Definitions of deference

  1. 1noundeferencePolite yielding to somebody's rank or judgement.C1

    “Out of deference to the old man, everyone stood when he entered.”

deference is a yielding.

Where it comes from

French deference comes from deferer, to submit or yield, from Latin deferre, to carry down.

  1. French

    déférence

  2. English, today

    deference

From French déférence. Morphologically defer + ence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

deference in the wild

  • In common law jurisdictions, an appellate court reviewing an issue of fact ordinarily gives deference to the trial court's findings.

    Appellate court

  • The decision articulated a doctrine known as "Chevron deference".

    Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

  • Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court that addressed the issue of when Chevron deference should be applied.

    United States v. Mead Corp.

  • The court adopted a case-by-case test, the Skidmore deference, which considers the rulings, interpretations, and opinions of the administrator.

    Skidmore v. Swift & Co.

  • Parental respect refers to deference and associated actions directed towards one's parent(s).

    Parental respect

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • defer