lawyer
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A person trained to advise people about the law and legal issues
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lawyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɔjɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A professional person authorized to practice law; conducts lawsuits or gives legal advice
A professional person with a graduate law degree that qualifies for legal work (such as Juris Doctor)
Any of various plants that have hooked thorns.
Various species of Calamus, including Calamus australis, Calamus muelleri, Calamus obstruens, Calamus vitiensis, Calamus warburgii, and Calamus moti.
A relative of the raspberry found in Australia and New Zealand, Rubus australis
A woody climbing rainforest vine, Flagellaria indica.
verb
informalintransitive
To practice law.
intransitive
To make legalistic arguments.
informaltransitive
To barrage (a person) with questions in order to get them to admit something.
intransitive
To perform, or attempt to perform, the work of a lawyer.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A professional person authorized to practice law; conducts lawsuits or gives legal advice
Used this way, lawyer is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lawyer
- “My cousin just became a lawyer and passed the bar exam.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Stout-stemmed trailing shrub of New Zealand that scrambles over other growth.
Tall scrambling spiny palm of northeastern Queensland, Australia.
The responsibility of a lawyer to act in the best interests of the client.
The lawyer representing the defendant.
A lawyer specializing in actions for divorce or annulment.
An argumentative and contentious seaman.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- attorneynoun
- litigationnoun
- counselnoun
- legaladjective
- clientnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.