Latin phrases
Ancient Rome's sayings
Latin phrases are expressions borrowed from Latin that persist in English, often in legal, academic, medical, or formal contexts.
Some remain untranslated because no English equivalent captures the precise meaning: habeas corpus, pro bono, in vitro.
Others survive as learned flourishes or traditional formulas: carpe diem, caveat emptor, et cetera.
Many speakers use common Latin phrases without knowing Latin: vice versa, per se, ad hoc, status quo.
The phrases range from everyday (a.m. , p.m. , etc. ) to specialized legal terminology (mens rea, prima facie) to scholarly convention (ibid. , sic, passim).
- ad nauseamTo a sickening extent
- ad hocFor this purpose specifically
- tabula rasaUnmarked mental starting point
- ad hominemArgument targeting character
- ad infinitumTo infinity, limitlessly
ad lib · bona fide · alter ego · carpe diem · tempus fugit · habeas corpus · in vitro · pro bono · memento mori · modus operandi · vice versa · quid pro quo · ipso facto · non sequitur · reductio ad absurdum · sine qua non · per se · cogito ergo sum
- LatinCicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Livy
- Dark AcademiaGreek, classics, literature, Oxford, Cambridge
- Latin studydeclensions, conjugations, verb forms, parsing, inflection
- Latin studiesAeneid, Metamorphoses, Seneca, Livy, Lucretius
- proverbsproverbs, sayings, maxims, adages, aphorisms
- gravesgravestones, headstones, gravestone, tombstones, headstone
Latin phrasesplain English
Unadorned, accessible wording
plain language · everyday speech · common parlance · colloquialisms · English idioms
Latin phrasesliving language
Language still naturally spoken
neologisms · internet slang · modern slang · contemporary slang
Latin phrasesplain speech
Unembellished verbal expression
everyday language · simple words · layman's terms · informal expressions · casual speech