calificador

Calificador is a Spanish noun derived from the verb calificar and is used in several related but distinct senses depending on context. In general, it refers to someone or something that qualifies, evaluates, or assigns a value or characteristic to another thing.

In education and assessment, the calificador is the person who evaluates student work and assigns grades or marks. This can be a teacher, examiner, or reviewer who determines the level of performance or quality of an assignment, exam, or contest entry. The term is common in academic and testing contexts, where one or more calificadores are responsible for the final score.

In linguistics, calificador can denote a word or phrase that qualifies or limits the meaning of another element. In this usage, a calificador is a qualifier, often an adjective or modifier that specifies attributes of a noun. For example, in the phrase casa grande, grande functions as a calificador by qualifying casa.

In legal and administrative language, calificador appears in phrases such as calificación jurídica or circunstancia calificante, where it refers to the act of qualifying or classifying a fact under a legal category, or to an aggravating factor used for determining penalties. The exact usage varies by country and legal tradition, and the standalone noun calificador is less common than its compound forms.

Etymology traces the word to calificar, from Latin qualificare. The precise sense of calificador can thus vary by region, but all meanings share the core idea of judging, qualifying, or determining a relation of quality.