benefit of the doubt

English

Alternative forms

• BOTD (initialism)
• benefit of doubt (rare)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

benefit of the doubt (countable and uncountable, plural benefits of the doubt)

1. A favorable judgement given in the absence of full evidence.
   • 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 May 2019:

     Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.

2. A trust that something will turn out or happen as hoped for or expected despite concerns.
   • 2020 April 12, Simon Tisdall, “US's global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump's coronavirus response”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     “We consider this to be an act of modern piracy. This is no way to treat transatlantic partners. Even in times of global crisis, we shouldn’t resort to the tactics of the wild west,” said Andreas Geisel, a leading Berlin politician. Significantly, Merkel has refused to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

3. (cricket) The principle employed by umpires in cases of uncertainty concerning a batsman possibly being out, in which the decision must be in the batsman's favour.

Usage notes

• Almost always used with the verb give.

Translations

a favorable judgement given in the absence of full evidence

• Arabic: حُسْن الظَّنّ m (ḥusn aẓ-ẓann)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 疑點利益／疑点利益

• Dutch: voordeel van de twijfel n
• Esperanto: benefico de dubo
• Finnish: no general translation in Finnish; jättää tuomitsematta todisteiden puuttuessa (verb, biblical), tuomita syytetyn eduksi epäselvässä tapauksessa (verb, legal)
• French: bénéfice du doute (fr) m
• German: not used in German (perhaps circumscribed nicht das Schlimmste annehmen, somewhat similar Vertrauensvorschuss, Vertrauensbonus)
• Hebrew: מחמת הספק
• Hindi: शक का फ़ायदा m (śak kā fāydā), संदेह का लाभ m (sandeh kā lābh), संशय का लाभ m (sañśay kā lābh)
• Hungarian: a jobbik lehetőséget/eshetőséget tételezi fel, a legjobbat/kedvezőbbet tételezi fel, javára/kedvezően/jóindulattal/jóhiszeműen dönt/ítél, véd (hu)
• Icelandic: (give the benefit of the doubt) láta njóta vafans, (give the benefit of the doubt) telja saklausan uns sekt hefur verið sönnuð m
• Italian: beneficio del dubbio, apertura di credito f
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: la tvilen komme tiltalte til gode

  Nynorsk: la tvilen kome tiltalte til gode

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: przywilej wątpliwości na korzyść oskarżonego m
• Portuguese: benefício da dúvida (pt) m
• Russian: креди́т дове́рия (ru) m (kredít dovérija)
• Spanish: beneficio de la duda m
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: şüpheden sanık yararlanır, hüsn-ü zan (tr)

See also

• presumption of innocence