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opinion

Who wouldn't want the job of opinion writer for the Times. You get paid to sit around and tell people how you feel about things. And you know that I've got no shortage of opinions.

An opinion is a belief or attitude about something that isn't necessarily based on facts. You may have an opinion about Gwyneth Paltrow that I don't share. There's no way to prove who's right and who's wrong. Those are our thoughts about her, and that's the way it is. Ironically, when a judge decides a case, his or her ruling is referred to as an opinion. Even though what the judge says will become a matter of law, it's still just their opinion, based on what was presented by the two sides in a trial.

DEFINITIONS OF: opinion

n a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty

“my opinion differs from yours”

Synonyms:: persuasion, sentiment, thought, view

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; idea
a personal view; judgement, judgment, mind
an opinion formed by judging something; eyes
opinion or judgment; parti pris, preconceived idea, preconceived notion, preconceived opinion, preconception, prepossession
an opinion formed beforehand without adequate evidence; pole
one of two divergent or mutually exclusive opinions; political sympathies, politics
the opinion you hold with respect to political questions; conclusion, decision, determination
a position or opinion or judgment reached after consideration

Type of:: belief
any cognitive content held as true

n a belief or sentiment shared by most people; the voice of the people

“he asked for a poll of public opinion”

Synonyms:: popular opinion, public opinion, vox populi

Type of:: belief
any cognitive content held as true

n a vague idea in which some confidence is placed

Synonyms:: belief, feeling, impression, notion

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; presence
the impression that something is present; effect
an impression (especially one that is artificial or contrived); first blush
at the first glimpse or impression; hunch, intuition, suspicion
an impression that something might be the case; sound effect
an effect that imitates a sound called for in the script of a play; special effect
an effect used to produce scenes that cannot be achieved by normal techniques (especially on film); bosom, heart
the locus of feelings and intuitions

Type of:: idea, thought
the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about

n a message expressing a belief about something; the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof

“his opinions appeared frequently on the editorial page”

Synonyms:: view

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; adverse opinion
an opinion concerning financial statements (usually based on an audit by a CPA) that the statements as a whole do not present results fairly or are not in conformity with the generally accepted accounting practices of the United States; conjecture, guess, hypothesis, speculation, supposition, surmisal, surmise
a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence; position, side
an opinion that is held in opposition to another in an argument or dispute; divination
successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck

Type of:: content, message, subject matter, substance
what a communication that is about something is about

n the legal document stating the reasons for a judicial decision

“opinions are usually written by a single judge”

Synonyms:: judgement, judgment, legal opinion

Types:: show 5 types...; hide 5 types...; concurring opinion
an opinion that agrees with the court's disposition of the case but is written to express a particular judge's reasoning; dissenting opinion
an opinion that disagrees with the court's disposition of the case; majority opinion
the opinion joined by a majority of the court (generally known simply as `the opinion'); fatwah
(Islam) a legal opinion or ruling issued by an Islamic scholar; dictum, obiter dictum
an opinion voiced by a judge on a point of law not directly bearing on the case in question and therefore not binding

Type of:: instrument, legal document, legal instrument, official document
(law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right

n the reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself)

Synonyms:: ruling

Examples:: Bakke decision
a ruling by the Supreme Court on affirmative action; the Court ruled in 1978 that medical schools are entitled to consider race as a factor in their admission policy

Types:: fatwa
a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by a recognized authority

Type of:: judgement, judgment, judicial decision
(law) the determination by a court of competent jurisdiction on matters submitted to it

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