notary
noun
Simple meaning
A lawyer of noncontentious private civil law who drafts, takes, and records legal instruments for private parties, and provides legal advice.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nohtereeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnoʊtɚi
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
common law
A public notary, a legal practitioner who prepares, attests to, and certifies documents, witnesses affidavits, and administers oaths.
lawcanadaus
A notary public, a public officer who serves as an impartial witness to the signing of important documents, but who is not authorised to practise law.
lawespecially civil law
A lawyer of noncontentious private civil law who drafts, takes, and records legal instruments for private parties, and provides legal advice, but does not appear in court on his or her clients' behalf.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (common law) A public notary, a legal practitioner who prepares, attests to, and certifies documents, witnesses affidavits, and administers oaths.
Used this way, notary 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.
Nearby words
- notary public , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: public notary or a legal practitioner who prepares
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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.