Inns of Court

American  

plural noun

1. the four voluntary legal societies in England Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, and Gray's Inn that have the exclusive privilege of calling candidates to the English bar after they have received such instruction and taken such examinations as the Inns provide.

2. the buildings owned and used by the Inns.

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Inns of Court British  

plural noun

1. (in England) the four private unincorporated societies in London that function as a law school and have the exclusive privilege of calling candidates to the English bar See Lincoln's Inn Inner Temple Middle Temple Gray's Inn

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Example Sentences

A manic energy is apparent, a compulsion to relate the character’s experience with the precision of a member of London’s Inns of Court.

From Washington Post • Apr. 23, 2023

It was an idea shaped in part by his British education at Harrow, Cambridge and the Inns of Court in London, and one shared by many of his peers.

From New York Times • Jul. 26, 2018

The design of a public school such as Eton has much in common with, say, the colleges of Oxbridge, as well as the Inns of Court and the Houses of Parliament.

From The Guardian • Oct. 26, 2017

He held a press conference in a pub, appropriately named the Inns of Court, to defend himself.

From BBC • Dec. 22, 2010

That copy-now in the library of the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court in London—had previously been owned by his friend and Shakespeare’s, Ben Jonson.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton