legalese

American  

[lee-guh-leez, -lees] / ˌli gəˈliz, -ˈlis /

noun

1. language containing an excessive amount of legal terminology or of legal jargon.

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legalese British  

/ ˌliːɡəˈliːz /

noun

1. the conventional language in which legal documents, etc, are written

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Etymology

Origin of legalese

First recorded in 1910–15; legal + -ese

Example Sentences

“New language framed as compromise was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

More than that, its charter, laid out in formal legalese, is sheer fantasy.

From Slate • Jan. 28, 2026

By design, the details of how "freedom cities" would be established are laden with legalese like "federal enclaves with special economic and jurisdictional zones" or "interstate compacts."

From Salon • Mar. 17, 2025

She now wants to do Pilates after work, and the long hours she spends working and learning legalese have kept her mental faculties in check.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2024

That’s why guidelines on how to avoid legalese and other turbid professional styles call for using first- and second-person pronouns, inverting passives into actives, and letting verbs be verbs rather than zombie nouns.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker