Complainant Meaning
/kəmˈpleɪnənt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounOne who makes complaint, one who complains.
nounThe party that brings a civil lawsuit against another; the plaintiff.
Sentence Examples
The complainant filed a formal lawsuit.
The complainant's testimony was very credible.
The complainant testified about the incident during the court trial.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ testified that the defective product caused injury last summer.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ must formally state their grievance to the court judge.
Word Origin & History
From Old French complaignant, present participle of complaindre.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Heading the complainants is Sir Edward le Breton, Lord of the Manor of Loders, and a member of Bridport Rural Council."
— 1959 December 26, “Din from Diesels in Dorset”, in Railway Magazine, page 866:
"The Southern Region takes, in the main, a candid line with its public. [...] An ill-informed attempt to blackguard the railway publicly is likely to see the complainant put politely—but very firmly—in his place."
— 1962 August, “Let's have plain speaking”, in Modern Railways, page 73:
"It's hard for Americans to understand the patriotism that can get bound up in place-names. We're a young country. We're also accustomed, in our cockeyed cowboy fashion, to everything else revolving around us, so we can afford to let slide the fact that, say, the Gulf of Mexico isn't called the Gulf of America. (Although, according to John Hébert, that is the pet issue of one frequent complainant to the Board on Geographic Names.)"
— 2011, Ken Jennings, “Benchmarks”, in Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, Scribner, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 72:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ testified that the defective product caused injury last summer.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ must formally state their grievance to the court judge.