legal definitions
Law's official terminology
Legal definitions are the precise meanings assigned to terms within statutes, contracts, regulations, or court opinions.
Unlike everyday usage, legal definitions carry binding authority within their context—a word defined in a contract means exactly what that contract says it means, regardless of common understanding.
The legal definition of "vehicle" in this ordinance includes bicycles.
Courts spend considerable effort parsing legal definitions because rights and obligations hinge on exact wording.
- clauseProvision in agreement
- ordinanceOfficial government regulation
- statuteEnacted written rule
- originalismInterpreting by founding-era meaning
- textualismInterpreting law literally
definitional · regulation · precedent · legalese · fine print · terms and conditions · judge · codification · plain meaning · meaning · ambiguity · construction · lawyer · legislation · rule of law · agreement · covenant · intent
- legal fieldscivil law, criminal law, administrative law, common law, civil procedure
- explosives regulationslicenses, safety codes, ATF, blasting caps, detonators
- Sex Crimesrape, sexual assault, molestation, statutory rape, sexual battery
- legal doctrineprecedents, duty of care, causation
legal definitionslayman's terms
Non-specialist phrasing
everyday language · vernacular · common parlance · approximations
legal definitionscommon parlance
Ordinary, informal speech patterns
everyday speech · plain English · common usage · natural language · street language