Legalese

//ˌli.ɡəˈliz// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Technical jargon common in the legal profession; the argot of lawyers. derogatory, informal, uncountable

    "It is also his considered opinion that a condition precedent to any legislative action is that those best qualified to pronounce on the merits of a popular demand examine it in all its aspects. That is good Menzian legalese, as pompous as parody permits."

  2. 2
    a style that uses the abstruse technical vocabulary of the law wordnet
  3. 3
    Wordy, ostentatious talk or writing that resembles legal writing, especially when confusing to laypeople; bureaucratese; officialese. derogatory, informal, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
bureaucratesebureaucratesefederalesejournaleselawspeaklawyerese

Example

More examples

"This article is full of legalese."

Etymology

From legal + -ese.

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