Lawyerly

adj, adv

adj, adv ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Characteristic of, or suitable to, a lawyer.

    "She rewrote the letter to make it sound more lawyerly."

Adverb
  1. 1
    In the manner of a lawyer. rare

    "> And, in fact, there are legal limits to this alleged "right" of > possession as well, ones that have been upheld by the courts. Truly lawyerly said. Strange how the courts can uphold laws as "consitutional" that clearly contravene Constitutional clauses or ammendments.^([sic]) Judicial "activism" for you."

Example

More examples

"She rewrote the letter to make it sound more lawyerly."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From lawyer + -ly (adjectival suffix).

Etymology 2

From lawyer + -ly (adverbial suffix), after the adjective.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.