Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Law An overwhelming force of nature having unavoidable consequences that under certain circumstances can exempt one from the obligations of a contract.
Wiktionary
- n. law A greater force; "act of God"; unavoidable accident.
GNU Webster's 1913
- (Law) A superior force which under certain circumstances is held to exempt from contract obligations; inevitable accident; -- a civil-law term used as nearly equivalent to, but broader than, the common-law term act of God (which see).
WordNet 3.0
- n. a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events
Etymologies
- From Latin (Wiktionary)
- Latin vīs māior : vīs, force + māior, greater. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vis major’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Will do in a Pinch
Odd items, old or new, that might be employed in a way not originally intended. Like using a chopstick for pinning gathered tresses atop the head.
mangona, dumb-waiter, cundy, font, bénitier, txistu, hungerlin, fainting-fit, glunch, Mexican peso, hammered silver coin, coffee filter and 35 more...
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That Could Have Gone Better
dud, flop, fiasco, debacle, failure, learning experience, wash, doa, epic fail, bomb, crash and burn, bungle and 41 more...
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today's word
copemate, quiddity, ere, maugre, argal, cultivar, exurb, spokesmodel, rollick, logy, cadastral, corpulent and 259 more...
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ooh shiny
words I like with little or no rationalization
ventral, feverfew, axial, fend, murther, candela, helix, eruct, mayhem, lossy, weir, siphon and 59 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for vis major.
hernesheir Cerberus ate my homework. Jan 23, 2013