Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The specialized or technical language of the legal profession, especially when considered to be complex or abstruse.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A style of writing or speaking heavily emphasizing the abstruse technical vocabulary of the law, to the point where a speech or document may be incomprehensible to non-specialists.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The technical talk of the legal profession, the
argot oflawyers . - noun Wording that resembles how a lawyer writes, especially such that is confusing to the
layperson .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a style that uses the abstruse technical vocabulary of the law
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Reading a 5,000 word contract printed in minuscule print, full of legalese, is one thing, understanding it is a totally different thing.
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The actual document reads like Japanese stereo instructions and is written in legalese, a form that by design keeps all but the most die-hards from understanding it.
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Reading a 5,000 word contract printed in minuscule print, full of legalese, is one thing, understanding it is a totally different thing.
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There are millions of Americans who are not proficient at reading and comprehension, much less reading and understanding any contract that is written in legalese … ….
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Indeed, I think law and philology are closely related disciplines and law could learn a lot more from philology (and American legalese is interesting to me as an amateur philologist for a rather unusual reason*).
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There are millions of Americans who are not proficient at reading and comprehension, much less reading and understanding any contract that is written in legalese … ….
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This is a concept called "laches" in legalese; the team was established in 1967, the case brought in 1992, and it had dragged on until now, 2009, for 17 years.
Would you take a stand? frankwu 2009
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While the language of law can reach tremendous heights, legalese is more often painfully, agonizingly dull.
Pelf 2007
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While the language of law can reach tremendous heights, legalese is more often painfully, agonizingly dull.
Archive 2007-12-01 2007
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I read some of the legalese from the judgement, but mostly his commentary, which I found interesting and informative.
triangles 2007
Comments
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