738
Opinion of the Court
tained")). So far so good, but Booth then claims to be able to infer with particularity that when a prisoner demands money damages as the sole means to compensate his injuries, a grievance system without that relief offers no "available" "remed[y]." The general definitions, however, just do not entail such a specific conclusion.
It strikes us that the same definitions get the respondent corrections officers and their amicus the United States closer to firm ground for their assertion that the phrase "such administrative remedies as are available" naturally requires a prisoner to exhaust the grievance procedures offered, whether or not the possible responses cover the specific relief the prisoner demands. See Brief for Respondents 21. The United States tracks Booth in citing Webster's Third New International Dictionary to define "remedy" as "the legal means to recover a right or to prevent or obtain redress for a wrong" and "available" as "capable of use for the accomplishment of a purpose." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, supra, at 150, 1920. But this exercise in isolated definition is ultimately inconclusive, for, depending on where one looks, "remedy" can mean either specific relief obtainable at the end of a process of seeking redress, or the process itself, the procedural avenue leading to some relief. See Black's Law Dictionary 1296 (7th ed. 1999) (defining "remedy" alternatively as "[t]he means of enforcing a right or preventing or redressing a wrong," or as "remedial action. . . . Cf. relief").
We find clearer pointers toward the congressional objective in two considerations, the first being the broader statutory context in which "available" "remedies" are mentioned. The entire modifying clause in which the words occur is this: "until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." The "available" "remed[y]" must be "exhausted" before a complaint under § 1983 may be entertained. While the modifier "available" requires the possibility of some relief for the action complained of (as the
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