Whether you’re preparing for CLAT, AILET, or any other law entrance exam, understanding key legal terms is essential. These terms often appear in case laws, statutes, and exam questions. Here’s a list of the 100 most important legal terms that will boost your legal knowledge and help you excel!
100 Important Legal Terms
Abatement- act of eliminating
Abessive- denoting absence of a case
Abjure- to pronounce solemnly on oath
Absist- passing away of any legal right
Accrue- to come into existence as an enforceable right or claim.
Ad interim- in the mean time i.e. for a temporary period of time.
Adjudicate- to make an official judgement or decision upon a certain issue by a competent authority i.e. to determine the rights of the parties to the suit
Accede- to consent or agree
Accroach- to exercise power without authority
Agnates- relatives whose relationship can be traced wholly through males
Arson- crime of unlawfully destroying property by fire
Antimony- a contradiction in law
Accessory- a person who is concerned in the crime but does not actually commit the crime
Ad hoc- formed for a particular purpose
Affiant- one who makes an affidavit
Affray- unlawful fighting or use of force to intimidate others
Alien –a person who resides within the border of the country but is not subject of that country
Alms- charitable donations
Alimony- a court ordered allowance that one spouse pays to the other spouse for maintenance and support while they are separated.
Annulment- judicial act of nullifying
Approver- an accomplice who turn’s prosecutors witness
Battery- crime of actual or intended use of physical force on a person
Bear- one who sells stocks or shares short i.e. without possessing what he sells but intending to buy in later when the prices has fallen
Bequest- act of giving personal property by will
Blasphemy- attacking religion or religious tenets
Bootlegging- the illegal manufacture, distribution, or sale of goods, especially alcohol or recordings.
Bottomry- a system of merchant insurance in which a ship is used as security against a loan to finance a voyage, the lender losing their money if the ship sinks.
Bull- one who buys shares not intedning to take delivery but to resell at a higher price
Banco- a seat or bench of justices
Buggery- act consisting of anal intercourse which is considered as unnatural in law
Bullpen- It refers to an area in a prison where prisoners are kept in close confinement.
Burglary- illegal entry of a building with intent to commit a crime, especially theft.
Caveat- a warning or proviso
Charge- framing of formal accusation against someone in a criminal court
Conclusive proof- when a fact when proved is considered as conclusive proof of another then the court shall presume such fact and no evidence to rebut this presumption will be allowed to be given by the court.
Corporeal- physical objects which are capable of physical manifestation
Censure- an official reprimand
Chattel- movable property
Condonation- the pardoning of an offence
Consanguinity- consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person i.e. relationship by blood
Contranband- prohibited by law
Covenant- an agreement in writing to do or not to do something
Dactylography- it refers to the scientific study of fingerprints as a method of identification
Derogation- an exemption from or relaxation of a rule or law
Doli in capax: deemed incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime or tort by reason small age.
Deputation- service outside the parent department
Domicile- place or country of residence which recognized legally.
Dysonomy- bad laws
Emancipation- the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation
Droit- a legal right or claim
Duress- act done under threat or fear
Exonerate- to free a person from blame or a duty imposed on him
Embezzlement- theft or misappropriation of funds placed in one’s trust or belonging to one’s employer.
Encumbrance- a liability on property
Extradition- an act where one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to their law enforcement.
Fiat- a command
Foeticide- crime of killing a baby in the womb of the mother
Fiduciary- a relationship based on trust or good faith
Fugitive- a person who flees or escapes
Gale- a periodic payment of rent
Garnish- money exacted from a new prisoner by other prisoners or as jailer’s fee
Germane- pertinent to legal issue pending before the court
Graft- it is a form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous use of a politician’s authority for personal gain.
Gist- the ground or essence of legal action
Gratuitous- without legal consideration
Graymail- refers to solicited bulk email messages that are not spam
Honorarium- payment of services given voluntarily
Hypothecation- the practice where a debtor pledges collateral to secure a debt or as a condition precedent to the debt, or a third party pledges collateral for the debtor
Ibid- from the same source
Inchoate- already started but not completed
Inculpatory- to make a person liable for the guilt
Inter vivos- transfer between living persons
Intra vires- acts done within the powers
Indictment- a formal charge or accusation of a serious crime
Intestate- not having made a will before one dies.
Jeofail- an error or oversight in pleading
Kin- blood relatives
Leet- a criminal court
Magna carta- one of the greatest common law documents and is foundation of constitutional liberty
Malefaction- a crime or offence
Moratorium- a legal authorization to debtors to postpone payment
Novation- a new obligation between the same parties
Parole- the temporary or permanent release of a prisoner before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour.
Plutocracy- rule of the wealthy
Quasi- as if it were
Reclusion- Punishment involving civil degradation (as in the loss of the right to own property) and incarceration with hard labor.
Reprieve- cancel or postpone the punishment of (someone, especially someone condemned to death)
Retoreon- an act of lawful retaliation in kind for another nation’s unfriendly or unfair act
Rubric- the title of a statue or code
Sine a die- without a fixed day
Status quo- present condition
Summon- also called Citation, in law, the document issued by a court ordering a specific person to appear at a specific time for some specific purpose
Traverse- deny an allegation
Uterine- blood of same mother and not father
Verbatim- exactly, word for word
Vest- to clothe with legal right
Withersake- an enemy
Zabeta- a stated tariff
Zero- point from which reckoning begins
Zap: to destroy Read: 9 Important Legal Maxims for CLAT 2025
