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say it: TRAHY-uhl
trial is a noun meaning "the act of testing something". It carries 6 recorded senses.
the act of testing something
“in the experimental trials the amount of carbon was measured separately”
“he called each flip of the coin a new trial”
trying something to find out about it
“a sample for ten days free trial”
“a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the pain”
(law) the determination of a person's innocence or guilt by due process of law
“he had a fair trial and the jury found him guilty”
“most of these complaints are settled before they go to trial”
law
(sports) a preliminary competition to determine qualifications
“the trials for the semifinals began yesterday”
sport
an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event
“his mother-in-law's visits were a great trial for him”
“life is full of tribulations”
“a visitation of the plague”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for trial come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.