To e or not to e

eIs it judgment? Or judgement?

Views vary, but the established use of the English language by the legal profession is that a legally binding ruling by a court is a judgment – without an e. Whereas, in the more general sense, a view about some other matter is a judgement – with an e. Thus, in the course of a judgment, a judge might remark that the defendant made an error of judgement in making sexual advances to a waxwork mannequin of Marilyn Monroe in Madame Tussauds.

Almost always, when a journalist departs from that usage, it is because the journalist is simply unaware of it. Except in the United States, of course, where they leave the vowels out of all sorts of words.

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