Glossaries › Legal terms glossary

Legal terms glossary

Legal terms explained in plain English. 1,244 words and meanings, most familiar first.

Word	Meaning
in adjective	With privilege or possession; used to denote a holding, possession, or seisin
will noun	A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
as conjunction	Used before a preposition to clarify that the prepositional phrase restricts the meaning of the sentence; specifically.
back verb	To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
take verb	To receive or acquire (property) by law (e.g. as an heir).
thing noun	Whatever can be owned.
find verb	To determine or judge.
work verb	To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.
call noun	A reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance, or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, etc., on the land.
night noun	A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise.
fine noun	A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease.
wanted adjective	Subject to immediate detainment by law enforcement authorities on sight.
stay noun	A postponement, especially of an execution or other punishment.
hear verb	To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try.
try verb	To put on trial.
dead adjective	Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
real adjective	Relating to immovable tangible property.
move verb	To request an action from the court.
open adjective	Written or sent with the intention that it may made public or referred to at any trial, rather than by way of confidential private negotiation for a settlement.
case noun	A legal proceeding; a lawsuit or prosecution.
sit verb	Of a legislative or, especially, a judicial body such as a court, to be in session.
person noun	Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
close noun	The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not enclosed
party noun	A person or group of people constituting a particular side in a contract or legal action.
rest verb	To complete one's active advocacy in a trial or other proceeding, and thus to wait for the outcome (however, one is still generally available to answer questions, etc.)
able adjective	Legally qualified or competent.
walk verb	To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
town noun	A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.
trust noun	The confidence vested in a person who has legal ownership of a property to manage for the benefit of another.
tried adjective	Put on trial, taken before a lawcourt.
answer noun	A document filed in response to a complaint, responding to each point raised in the complaint and raising counterpoints.
fact noun	A wrongful or criminal deed.
cause noun	A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
book noun	A book award, a recognition for receiving the highest grade in a class (traditionally an actual book, but recently more likely a letter or certificate acknowledging the achievement).
perfect verb	To take an action, usually the filing of a document in the correct venue, that secures a legal right.
special noun	A person appointed specifically to examine a single event or issue.
company noun	An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.
sound verb	To arise or to be recognizable as arising in or from a particular area of law, or as likely to result in a particular kind of legal remedy.
murder noun	The act of committing or abetting a serious crime that results in the killing of a person, regardless of intent; felony murder.
hang verb	To kill (someone) by suspension from the neck, usually as a form of execution or suicide.
lie verb	To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained.
master noun	A parajudicial officer (such as a referee, an auditor, an examiner, or an assessor) specially appointed to help a court with its proceedings.
act noun	A product of a legislative body, a statute.
law noun	An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. (Chiefly in the phrases "wager of law", "wage one's law", "perform one's law", "lose one's law".)
strange adjective	Not belonging to one.
pass verb	To be conveyed or transferred by will, deed, or other instrument of conveyance.
court noun	The administration of law.
evidence noun	Anything admitted by a court to prove or disprove alleged matters of fact in a trial.
security noun	Something that secures the fulfillment of an obligation or law.
letter noun	A division unit of a piece of law marked by a letter of the alphabet.
force noun	Legal validity.
count noun	A charge of misconduct brought in a legal proceeding.
charge verb	To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.
bar noun	The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay.
accident noun	Casus; such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.
cover noun	In commercial law, a buyer’s purchase on the open market of goods similar or identical to the goods contracted for after a seller has breached a contract of sale by failure to deliver the goods contracted for.
agree verb	To consent to a contract or to an element of a contract.
offer noun	An invitation to enter into a binding contract communicated to another party which contains terms sufficiently definite to create an enforceable contract if the other party accepts the invitation.
record verb	To give legal status to by making an official public record.
service noun	The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
standing noun	The right of a party to bring a legal action, based on the relationship between that party and the matter to which the action relates.
within adjective	In the context of which the present document or ruling is made.
spent adjective	Of legislation or an enactment: no longer in force due to all of its provisions having expired or been completed.
seat noun	One of a series of departmental placements given to a trainee solicitor as part of their training contract.
accept verb	To agree to pay.
continue verb	To adjourn, prorogue, put off.
arrest noun	The process of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.
action noun	A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
learned adjective	A courteous description used in various ways to refer to lawyers or judges.
favor noun	Partiality; bias
allow verb	To decide (a request) in favour of the party who raised it; to grant victory to a party regarding (a request).
guilty adjective	Judged to have committed a crime.
suit noun	The attempt to gain an end by legal process; a process instituted in a court of law for the recovery of a right or claim; a lawsuit.
witness noun	Someone called to give evidence in a court.
cross verb	To conduct a cross examination; to question a hostile witness.

Word	Meaning
waste verb	To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.
treat verb	To commit the offence of providing food, drink, entertainment or provision to corruptly influence a voter.
acting noun	Something done by a party — so called to avoid confusion with the legal senses of deed and action.
raise verb	To create; to constitute (a use, or a beneficial interest in property).
lay verb	To state; to allege.
note verb	To record on the back of (a bill, draft, etc.) a refusal of acceptance, as the ground of a protest, which is done officially by a notary.
several adjective	Separable, capable of being treated separately.
advice noun	A communication providing information, such as how an uncertain area of law might apply to possible future actions
rule noun	An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
hearing noun	A legal procedure done before a judge, without a jury, as with an evidentiary hearing.
practice noun	The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
pardon noun	An order that releases a convicted criminal without further punishment, prevents future punishment, or (in some jurisdictions) removes an offence from a person's criminal record, as if it had never been committed.
challenge noun	A procedure or action.
serve verb	To deliver a document.
credit noun	A privilege of delayed payment extended to a buyer or borrower on the seller's or lender's belief that what is given will be repaid.
discuss verb	To examine or search thoroughly; to exhaust a remedy against, as against a principal debtor before proceeding against the surety.
condition noun	A clause in a contract or agreement indicating that a certain contingency may modify the principal obligation in some way.
heads noun	The draft scheme of a bill before it is formally introduced to a parliament.
society noun	A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act toward a common goal.
finding noun	A formal conclusion by a judge, jury or regulatory agency on issues of fact.
dry adjective	Describing an area where sales of alcoholic or strong alcoholic beverages are banned.
release noun	The giving up of a claim, especially a debt.
base adjective	Not held by honourable service.
issue noun	Offspring: one's natural child or children.
process noun	Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
pool noun	An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to different people in a community, in a common fund, to be charged with common liabilities.
settle verb	To formally, legally secure (an annuity, property, title, etc) on (a person).
ancient noun	One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
member noun	The judge or adjudicator in a consumer court.
enter verb	To become a party to an agreement, treaty, etc.
access noun	The right of a noncustodial parent to visit their child.
post verb	To pay bail.
contract noun	The document containing such an agreement.
grandfather verb	To retain discontinued laws or rules for (a thing, person or organization previously affected by them).
avoid verb	To defeat or evade; to invalidate.
repeat verb	To repay or refund (an excess received).
particular adjective	Containing a part only; limited.
fixed adjective	Of sound, recorded on a permanent medium.
jury noun	A group of individuals chosen from the general population to hear and decide a case in a court of law.
positive adjective	Formally laid down.
location noun	A leasing on rent.
grant noun	A transfer of property by deed or writing; especially, an appropriation or conveyance made by the government.
appointment noun	The exercise of the power of designating (under a power of appointment) a person to enjoy an estate or other specific property; also, the instrument by which the designation is made.
chose noun	A thing; personal property.
vacation noun	The act of making legally void.
available adjective	Valid.
passing noun	The act of approving a bill etc.
result verb	To return to the proprietor (or heirs) after a reversion.
claim noun	A legal demand for compensation or damages.
junior noun	A junior barrister.
popular adjective	Concerning the people; public.
stranger noun	One not privy or party to an act, contract, or title; a mere intruder or intermeddler; one who interferes without right.
material adjective	Significant.
hung adjective	Of a jury, unable to reach a unanimous verdict in a trial.
ordinary noun	A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.
receive verb	To take goods knowing them to be stolen.
schedule noun	A written or printed table of information, often forming an annex or appendix to a statute or other regulatory instrument, or to a legal contract.
reporter noun	A case reporter; a bound volume of printed legal opinions from a particular jurisdiction.
alien verb	To transfer the ownership of something.
defend verb	To make legal defence of; to represent (the accused).
incident adjective	Dependent upon, or appertaining to, another thing, called the principal.
warrant noun	A judicial writ authorizing an officer to make a search, seizure, or arrest, or to execute a judgment.
negative noun	A right of veto.
estate noun	The nature and extent of a person's interest in, or ownership of, land.
device noun	An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.
debt noun	An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
tail adjective	Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
robbery noun	The offense of taking or attempting to take the property of another by force or threat of force.
agreement noun	A legally binding contract enforceable in a court of law.
policy noun	A contract of insurance.
perform verb	To act in a way set forth in a contract.
production noun	Written documents produced in support of the action or defence.
loan noun	An act or instance of lending, an act or instance of granting something for temporary use.
accused noun	The person charged with an offense; the defendant in a criminal case.
transfer verb	To arrange for something to belong to or be officially controlled by somebody else.

Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources