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legalese

American

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

noun

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

legalese British

/ ˌliːɡəˈliːz /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of legalese

First recorded in 1910–15; legal + -ese

Explanation

Legalese is the technical and complex language that appears in most legal documents. It's characterized by long sentences, specialized vocabulary, and set phrases. In legal documents, you might come across words and terms not used in everyday spoken English like hereby, thereof, or inter alia. And some ordinary words have different meanings in legal jargon: In a contract, consideration means "something exchanged between parties." Because a single word in a contract can matter a great deal, lawyers use legalese to ensure legal precision and maintain historical consistency. Legal vocabulary carries strong influences from French and Latin, languages historically used in English legal proceedings and records.

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

legalese

In legalese, this requirement is known as mens rea—literally, “guilty mind.”

From Slate ● Oct. 25, 2026

“You’re such a great acting partner, and had a great time on that show,” Fox said as he spoke from stage in a wheelchair, adding he was happy to no longer speak in legalese.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

Challenged during a news conference over whether the wording "ordinarily" meant some migrants would not be accepted by France, Farage said it was "legalese".

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Those rules have to be drafted in a formal, one-size-fits-all fashion, resulting in pages and pages of legalese.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026

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

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023