: a person who brings a legal action compare defendant
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We won't complain about the origins of plaintiff, although complain and plaintiff are distantly related; both can be traced back to plangere, a Latin word meaning "to strike, beat one's breast, or lament." Plaintiff comes most immediately from Middle English plaintif, itself an Anglo-French borrowing tracing back to plaint, meaning "lamentation." (The English word plaintive is also related.) Logically enough, plaintiff applies to the one who does the complaining in a legal case.
the judge ruled that the plaintiff's lawsuit was groundless, and he dismissed it
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That same year, millions of plaintiffs filed an antitrust class action lawsuit seeking over $1 billion in damages that alleged Sutter Health overcharged customers and companies for health care bills and discouraged clients from using other lower-cost services.—Kyle Martin, Mercury News, 13 Oct. 2025 The limited public profile of the plaintiffs highlights how modern constitutional test cases are often organized by lawyers or advocacy groups seeking a particular ruling.—Robert Alexander, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Oct. 2025 The federal courts in 2022 sided with the plaintiffs’ claim that the plan did violate the Voting Rights Act and ordered the state legislature to redraw the congressional plan with a second Black-majority district.—Sam D. Hayes, The Conversation, 13 Oct. 2025 One of the anonymous plaintiffs called out Ellison for supporting the policies that have allowed the trans pitcher to play against females.—Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for plaintiff
Word History
Etymology
Middle English plaintif, from Anglo-French, from pleintif, adjective
Middle French plaintif, from plaintif, adj., grieving, from plaint lamentation, from Latin planctus, from plangere to strike, beat one's breast, lament
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