A Legal Dictionary also known as Law Dictionary is one that is designed and composed to provide information about the terms used in the field of law.
Legal dictionaries generally include definitions of legal terms from a variety of sources and they are the first place that you should look for when you do not understand the meaning of a legal term.
In this article we will be discussing 5 Free Online Legal Dictionaries that you could use to search for Legal Terms.
1. Law.com
This is a Free Online Legal Dictionary from Gerald and Kathleen Hill that you can use to search for a Legal Term or to search for all definitions that include a specific term you require. Select if you wish to search for All words, Any Words or Phrase depending upon the string that you have typed and then press Enter. Next click on any search result and the complete definition of the word / phrase will be available for you.
If you wish to Browse all the Legal terms beginning with a certain alphabet, click on the specific alphabet in the list.
Overall, Law.com is a fine extensive Legal Dictionary that you can use for any term related to the field of Law. The facility that it offers to search for all definitions that include any term is really handy.
Click here to navigate to this Law Dictionary
2. Public.Law
This is yet another Free Legal Dictionary that covers a total of 617 total definitions from 10 official sources. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any support to search for Legal Terms.
Just click on any of the Featured Entries to read the definition or click on ‘617 Total Definitions’ to go through the entire list that is sorted alphabetically. Each Legal Term is accompanied by ‘Flag’ icons that depict the sources that have included the term in their list such as United States Courts, Department of Justice Canada and more. Click on any term and its definition will be displayed to you along with the Source of the information.
If you wish to find out all the Sources that have been used and the Legal Terms under each of them, click on ’10 Official Sources’ and then click on the Source that you are interested.
All in all, this Legal Dictionary is good but limited in regards to the number of Legal Terms that is covers. However, it gives handy information about the Source of the Term and its definition and this is indeed very helpful for the user.
To use this Legal Dictionary, click here.
3. Nolo’s Free Dictionary Of Law Terms and Legal Definitions
This is the 3rd in the line of Online Legal Dictionaries that we have covered in this article. Simply click on the Alphabet and you will get a list of all the Legal Terms beginning with it. Click on any term in the list to get its definition. That’s all there is to it.
Unfortunately there isn’t any search facility and you have to manually browse the entire list beginning with a certain alphabet to locate the Legal Term that you are searching for. Other than this drawback, Nolo’s Free Law Dictionary covers a lot of Legal Terms and is definitely helpful for a student of Law or anyone doing some research in the field.
Click here to visit Nolo’s Free Dictionary Of Law Terms and Legal Definitions.
4. The Law Dictionary
This is yet another dictionary of Legal Terms featuring Black’s Law Dictionary which is the most widely sought Law Dictionary in the world and considered to be the gold standard for the language of Law.
Simply type the Term that you wish to search in the Search Box and press Enter. A list of Terms will be displayed that include the word / phrase that you have typed. Just click on any Term to read its definition.
You can also hover your mouse on ‘Legal Dictionary’ in the top navigation bar and click on any alphabet to see the list of Legal Terms beginning with it.
Overall this is a very good Online Legal Dictionary with a search facility and covers an extensive database of Terms. The fact that it features Black’s Law Dictionary is enough for it to be a very priceless resource for terms related to Law.
To access ‘The Law Dictionary’, click here.
5. Law Insider
This is the last in the list of Legal Dictionaries and a good one at that.
Like earlier, just type the Term that you wish to search and press enter. Law Insider supports predictive search, hence you may just type a few alphabets and select one of the suggestions that if offers if that is what you are searching for.
You can click on the ‘Copy’ icon beside any definition to copy the text to the clipboard. Along with the definition, Law Insider also provides more definitions of the same term from different sources and documents and examples of how the term can be used in a sentence. Additionally, the vertical panel on the right, gives you a list of the related definitions based on the term under consideration.
Overall, Law Insider offers an excellent Legal Dictionary with lots of definitions from various sources. It also guides you in using Legal Terms in your sentences that is very important when you are framing a legal document.
Click here to navigate to Law Insider.
You must spend time with each of the Online Legal Dictionaries above and search for some related Terms to figure out which one works best for you based on numerous factors such as Number of Terms covered, Quality of the definition, Sources and more. My personal vote will be in favor of the last one that is Law Insider.
