referee.
An umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game.
Meaning & usage
An umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game.
The referee kicked Jim out of the game for fighting.
A person who settles a dispute.
A person who writes a letter of reference or provides a reference by phone call for someone. (In the UK such a person is sometimes, and in the US the person is typically, referred to as a reference.)
Your application, along with letters from three referees, should be received by January 31.
An expert who judges the manuscript of an article or book to decide if it should be published.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English [Term?], from past participle of Old French referer (“to relate, to refer”), from Latin referre (“to carry back, to report, to notify”); as if refer + -ee, that is, the person to whom something is referred for consideration.
To act as a referee.
He has to referee three hockey games this weekend.
She has to finish refereeing an article for Nature.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English [Term?], from past participle of Old French referer (“to relate, to refer”), from Latin referre (“to carry back, to report, to notify”); as if refer + -ee, that is, the person to whom something is referred for consideration.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.