Bryan Garner's Usage Tip: jury.

Your daily usage tip hot off the press.

Smarter words.

jury.

jury. In American English, this is a COLLECTIVE NOUN, and it therefore takes a singular verb <the jury has spoken>. To emphasize the individual members of the jury, we have the word jurors <the jurors have spoken>. In British English, however, it is common to see a plural verb with jury <the jury have spoken>, just as with other collective nouns.

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