Kara Sears
A case is a comprehensive term for a specific instance or example of something. It can be used to refer to a court proceeding, a medical term for a patient's details, or a bag that holds or covers something. The word case can also be used as a verb, meaning to scope out a location for burglarizing. The various meanings of the word case originate from two Latin roots: casus, meaning chance or occasion, and capsa, meaning box. In the context of law, a case refers to a specific legal proceeding or situation that requires discussion, decision-making, or investigation by officials or law enforcement authorities. It can also refer to a representative case that sets a precedent for future similar cases. In the field of medicine, a case study provides a detailed account of the development and treatment of a patient, serving as an example to illustrate general principles or theories.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Noun | A specific instance or example of something |
| A proceeding in a court of law | |
| A medical term for the details of one specific patient | |
| A bag that holds or covers something | |
| A verb meaning "to scope out a location for burglarizing it later" | |
| A grammatical category indicating the function of nouns and pronouns in a sentence | |
| An inflectional form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective indicating its grammatical relation to other words | |
| An instance or example used to explain a general idea or principle | |
| A person or thing whose plight or situation calls for attention | |
| A specific occurrence or matter requiring discussion, decision, or investigation | |
| Adjective | Case can be used as an adjective in the phrase "upper case" to refer to capital letters |
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What You'll Learn
Case as a legal term
The word "case" has several meanings and is used in various contexts. As a legal term, a case is a specific instance or example of a proceeding in a court of law, whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy. It can refer to a lawsuit or a situation that requires discussion, decision, or investigation by officials or law enforcement authorities.
In law, a case is a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law. It can be a lawsuit brought by a representative of a large group of people on behalf of all group members. For example, a lawsuit may be filed to determine the father of a child born out of wedlock and provide for the child's support once paternity is established.
A case can also be a representative matter that will serve as a precedent for future cases, especially those involving similar or related issues, circumstances, or parties. A test case is selected from multiple cases to avoid a flood of litigation, and all parties must agree to accept the outcome as binding. These cases are well-reasoned and important in establishing rules of law and declaring principles that courts and lawyers frequently cite.
Additionally, a case can refer to a specific occurrence or situation that requires official attention or action. For instance, a police department may study the case of missing jewels or investigate a person of interest as a potential case. It can also refer to an instance of disease or injury requiring medical attention, such as a severe case of chickenpox.
In the context of criminal investigations, a "case" may refer to the evidence and circumstances surrounding a particular crime, or a collection of related crimes. For example, investigators may match casing found at different crime scenes to determine if the same gun was used in multiple incidents, thereby linking the cases together.
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Case as a medical term
In medicine, a "case" refers to a particular instance of a disease or health condition in a patient. It is like a single example of someone falling sick. Doctors study these cases to understand how illnesses work and how they can be treated. Each case is unique and provides valuable information about the disease and its effects on the human body.
Case definitions are often used to label individuals as suspect, probable, or confirmed cases. For example, during an outbreak investigation, a case definition is developed at an early stage to facilitate the identification of individual cases. This definition may include information regarding person, place, and time, in addition to clinical and laboratory characteristics. For instance, a case definition for an outbreak of foodborne illness may include only those individuals who ate at a certain restaurant during a specified period.
Case definitions are also used in ongoing public health surveillance to track the occurrence and distribution of diseases within a given area. They provide explicit criteria for clinicians to report cases of select diseases to public health authorities in a standard and uniform manner. This is particularly useful for studies comparing the prevalence of diseases across regions, as the use of the same case definitions allows for a relatively accurate assessment of the disease burden.
Additionally, the term "case" can be used more broadly in medicine to refer to a situation requiring investigation or action, such as a patient presenting with a particular set of findings or symptoms. Medical case management is a related concept, referring to the collaborative process of facilitating recommended treatment plans to ensure that appropriate medical care is provided to disabled, ill, or injured individuals.
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Case as a grammatical term
In grammar, a case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (such as determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a sentence. In other words, it is a kind of inflection, or a change in the form of a word, that indicates how that word is used in a sentence, or its relationship with other words. For example, in English, the word "I" is used when the speaker is the subject of the sentence ("I went to the shops"), but "me" is used when the speaker is the object ("She saw me at the shops"). Here, "I" and "me" are different cases of the same pronoun, with distinct functions in the sentence.
Cases are a syntagmatic or phrasal category, and should be distinguished from thematic roles such as agent and patient. However, they are often closely related. In Latin, for example, several thematic roles are realised by a somewhat fixed case for deponent verbs. Cases are also distinct from gender, which is not present in English nouns, and number, which is.
English has largely lost its inflected case system, but personal pronouns still have three cases: the subjective case, the objective case, and the possessive case. The subjective case is for a noun or pronoun that is the subject of a verb (i.e., the person or thing carrying out the action). For example, "He gave her a letter" ("He" is the subject of "gave"). The objective case is for a noun or pronoun that is the direct object of a verb (e.g., "She likes him"), the indirect object of a verb (e.g., "Give her the money"), or the object of a preposition (e.g., "Go with them"). The possessive case shows possession or ownership. For example, "The dog has eaten the cat's dinner" (the apostrophe in "the cat's" indicates that the cat owns the dinner).
In other languages, there are more cases. For example, German, Russian, Finnish, and Esperanto all have grammatical cases. German inflects nouns, articles, adjectives, and pronouns into four distinct cases. Russian has up to ten additional cases, although most are only partially used or outdated. In Old English, there was an instrumental case, but neither a locative nor a prepositional case.
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Case as a situation requiring attention
A "case" can refer to a situation that requires attention, discussion, decision, or investigation, often by officials or law enforcement. It can be used to direct attention to a real or assumed occurrence that needs to be considered, studied, or addressed.
For example, a person's plight or situation may be described as a "case" when it calls for attention or help, such as a family facing hardships. In such instances, the term "case" highlights a specific context that warrants consideration and often requires some form of resolution or intervention.
In a legal context, a "case" refers to a court proceeding or a lawsuit. It involves a specific set of circumstances, events, or disputes that need to be examined, deliberated, and adjudicated by legal authorities. A "case" in this sense carries a weight of significance, demanding attention from the relevant judicial systems and stakeholders.
In the field of medicine, a "case" pertains to the details of a specific patient's condition. It encompasses the patient's medical history, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment plan. Medical professionals use the term "case" to focus attention on an individual's health situation, which requires professional scrutiny, care, and management.
Additionally, in the realm of research and studies, a "case" can refer to an instance or example used to illustrate or explain a broader principle or theory. It serves as a representative scenario that helps to elucidate a particular concept or phenomenon. By presenting a "case," scholars and researchers provide a tangible context that demands attention and analysis, contributing to a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
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Case as a bag or container
A case can refer to a bag or container that holds or covers something. For example, "laptop case" or "cellphone case" refer to bags or containers that hold or cover a laptop or cellphone, respectively. Binoculars may also come with their own case, which is a handy container for storing and carrying the binoculars.
In printing, a case is a tray of wood, metal, or plastic that is divided into compartments for holding types for the use of a compositor. There are two cases: the upper case, which contains capital letters, and the lower case, which contains small letters.
In the context of metallurgy, a case can refer to the hard outer part of a piece of case-hardened steel. In the field of medicine, a case refers to the details of a specific patient. For instance, a doctor may refer to their patients as cooperative cases.
The word "case" originates from the Latin roots casus, meaning "chance or occasion," and capsa, meaning "box."
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Frequently asked questions
A case is a specific instance or example of something. It can also refer to a bag that holds or covers something, like a laptop case or a cosmetics case. The word "case" has two Latin roots: casus, meaning "chance or occasion", and capsa, meaning "box".
In law, a case refers to a court proceeding or a lawsuit. It can also be used to describe a specific occurrence or matter requiring discussion, decision, or investigation by officials or law enforcement authorities.
In medicine, a case refers to the details of a specific patient or an instance of disease or injury requiring medical attention or treatment.
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