plaintiff

English

Etymology

From Middle English plaintif, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French plaintif (“complaining; as a noun, one who complains, a plaintiff”) from the verb plaindre. Doublet of plaintive.

Noun

plaintiff (plural plaintiffs)

1. (law) A party bringing a suit in civil law against a defendant; accusers.

   Synonyms: complainant, litigant, (English law) claimant, (Scottish law) pursuer

   Antonyms: defendant, suspect

   Hypernyms: litigant, litigator

   Hyponyms: suer, petitioner

Related terms

• plaintive

Translations

party bringing a suit in civil law against a defendant

• Arabic: (indefinite) مُدَّعٍ m (muddaʕin), (definite) اَلْمُدَّعِي (al-muddaʕī)
• Armenian: հայցվոր (hy) (haycʻvor)
• Bulgarian: тъжител (bg) m (tǎžitel)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 原告 (jyun⁴ gou³)

  Mandarin: 原告 (zh) (yuángào)

• Czech: žalobce m
• Danish: sagsøger c
• Dutch: eiser (nl), aanklager (nl)
• Esperanto: plendanto
• Estonian: hageja (et)
• Finnish: kantaja (fi)
• French: demandeur (fr), plaignant (fr) m, plaignante (fr) f
• Georgian: მოსარჩელე (mosarčele)
• German: Kläger (de) m
• Hebrew: המבקש (ha'mevakesh)
• Hungarian: felperes (hu)
• Icelandic: stefnandi m
• Indonesian: penggugat (id)
• Interlingua: demandator
• Irish: éilitheoir m, gearánaí m
• Italian: querelante (it) m, parte civile f, ricorrente (it) m
• Japanese: 原告 (ja) (げんこく, genkoku)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: petītor m, petītrix f
• Manchu: ᡥᠠᠪᡧᠠᡥᠠ
  ᠨᡳᠶ᠋ᠠᠯᠮᠠ (habšaha niyalma)
• Maori: kaiwhakapae
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: заалдагч (mn) (zaaldagč)

  Mongolian: ᠵᠠᠭ᠋ᠠᠯᠳ᠋ᠤᠭᠴᠢ (ǰaɣalduɣči)

  Classical Mongolian: ᠵᠠᠭᠠᠯᠳᠤᠭᠰᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠦ᠋ᠮᠦᠨ (ǰaɣalduɣsan kümün)

• Persian: خواهان (fa) (xâhân)
• Polish: powód (pl) m, powódka f
• Portuguese: querelante (pt) m or f, acusação (pt) f, promotoria (pt)
• Russian: исте́ц (ru) m (istéc)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: жа̀лилац m

  Roman: žàlilac (sh) m

• Slovak: žalobca m
• Spanish: demandante (es), querellante
• Swedish: åtalad (sv) c, kärande (sv) c, målsägande (sv) c, målsägare (sv) c
• Tagalog: nagsasakdal
• Thai: โจทก์ (th) (jòot)
• Vietnamese: nguyên cáo (vi)
• Yakut: үҥээччи (üñeecci)

Further reading

• “plaintiff”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “plaintiff”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.