Table of Contents

Preface to the Third Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Classified Guide to Essay Entries
Pronunciation Guide
List of Abbreviations
Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments of Permission
Select Index of Writers Cited

About the Author

Bryan Garner is the award-winning author or editor of more than 20 books. He is a prolific lecturer, having taught more than 2,500 writing workshops since the 1991 founding of his company, LawProse, Inc. His works include Garner on Language and Writing, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (co-written with Justice Antonin Scalia), The Winning Brief, The Elements of Legal Style, and Legal Writing in Plain English. Garner has served as editor-in-chief of
Black's Law Dictionary since 1995, and he is the author of the grammar-and-usage chapter in the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.

Reviews

"Even law libraries that already own the first edition should benefit from Garner's new edition."--Law Library Journal
"Assiduous use of the newly revised Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage will improve mediocre legal writing and enhance good documents. Libraries that serve the legal community and people who read what lawyers write should add this work to their reference collections."--RQ
"The first edition of this book has been praised around the world as both the most reliable guide to legal usage and the most fascinating to read. The second edition outdoes even its predecessor, with more depth, more illustrative quotations, and more proof of Garner's lively literary style. He has surely established himself as the world's leading authority on the language of the law."--Charles Alan Wright
"The well-received Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage has been updated in this superior second edition....Even libraries that have the first edition should consider this new one, which is highly recommended for any law collection in public or academic libraries."--RBB/Booklist
"This dictionary sets the standard for legal usage. It is absolutely indispensable for law libraries, lawyers, and judges, and a wonderful addition to all academic and public library reference collections."--Library Journal
"You will use A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage again and again with confidence and delight. This is one of the best books ever written for lawyers."--ABA Appellate Practice Journal
"Garner has produced a work of learning, taste, care, and wit."--ABA Journal
"Even law libraries that already own the first edition should benefit from Garner's new edition."--Law Library Journal
"Assiduous use of the newly revised Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage will improve mediocre legal writing and enhance good documents. Libraries that serve the legal community and people who read what lawyers write should add this work to their reference collections."--RQ
"The first edition of this book has been praised around the world as both the most reliable guide to legal usage and the most fascinating to read. The second edition outdoes even its predecessor, with more depth, more illustrative quotations, and more proof of Garner's lively literary style. He has surely established himself as the world's leading authority on the language of the law."--Charles Alan Wright
"The well-received Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage has been updated in this superior second edition....Even libraries that have the first edition should consider this new one, which is highly recommended for any law collection in public or academic libraries."--RBB/Booklist
"This dictionary sets the standard for legal usage. It is absolutely indispensable for law libraries, lawyers, and judges, and a wonderful addition to all academic and public library reference collections."--Library Journal
"An impressive enhancement of the original edition....Garner's approach to legal language makes this resource essential to law and social science collections and to all levels of readers, including lawyers."--Choice
"Keep a copy of this book where you write briefs. You will use A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Second Edition, again and again with confidence and delight. This is one of the best books ever written for lawyers."--The Appellate Practice Journal and Update
"This dictionary is not only useful, it is actually fun to browse in. Its entries are admirably clear and direct, and often clever. If used regularly by enough lawyers, it could put an end to legalese."--The Federal Lawyer
"The first edition was highly regarded; this new edition is even better."--Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing
"Every administrative law judge should have the 9000 entries in this 948-page A-Z law dictionary/style guide handy as they write and edit decisions. This desk reference will assist greatly in clear thinking and writing."--National Association of Administrative Law Judges Newsletter
"Those who dote on language will find more than a modicum of valuable linguistic insight in Garner's latest lexicographical achievement....[It] is liberally strewn with fascinating facts from history and pithy quotations from the famous bound together by Garner's own talented hand....A useful addition to your reference library and almost as entertaining to read as a Scott Turow thriller."--The Catchline
"Magisterial....It is an invaluable reference work, but it is also fun to read....A gift that any lawyer would cherish."--The Practical Lawyer
"If you missed the first edition of Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, buy the second--using it will improve your communication skills and make you a better lawyer. If you have the first edition....buy yourself the second edition. It is even better than the first."--Clarity
Praise for the First Edition:
"Like Fowler the book is a delight to dip into and though one may sometimes quibble about a recommended usage or warning one cannot but approve the great majority of the points made. What a wealth of good exam questions it would provide. Students and young lawyers, and very probably many old lawyers also, should be aware of this book and frequently refer to it, and take to heart what the learned author has said, because in most cases his counsel (no, not council) is available"--David M. Walker,
The Scots Law Times
"Together, Garner's Dictionary of Modern English Usage and Elements of Legal Style fill a long-standing void in materials on legal prose. If lawyers and law students take the time to study them, they can achieve two difficult (one might almost say inconsistent) goals at once: the ability to recognize good legal usage and the ability to write simply and clearly."--William H. Adams III, George Mason University Law School
"A superb reference for any lawyer or law student."--Martin Dickinson, University of Kansas
"Beginning law students will find this "inside" dictionary much more useful than the older standard law dictionaries."--Bruce J. McKee, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University
"Indispensable to legal writers. It is not merely a dictionary in the traditional sense....Rather, it shows how words are most effectively used, providing guidance on myriad questions of style and grammar....Our advice is to check Garner."--Michigan Bar Journal
"In a work worthy of comparison to Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Mr. Garner...sets forth an authoritative guide to American legal usage and style. All legal writers will find it an invaluable help."--Harvard Law Review
"From now on, anyone who tries to write about the law without this book close at hand will be guilty of literary and perhaps of legal misfeasance. In short, an invaluable reference."--Irving Younger, University of Minnesota
"An engrossing book....Should be in every library and on the desk of everyone."--Choice
"A wonderful book, truly unique in the literature of law....The dictionary is brilliantly written and very nicely laid out and arranged....An excellent source of legal word usage."--American Reference Books Annual
"An exceptionally useful work....One can do a newly-admitted lawyer no greater favor than giving him or her...a copy of this distinguished work of scholarship and common sense."--Washington State Bar News
"The art of accurate, concise, clear statement, relieved as far as possible of repetition, jargon, and tedium is more essential to the practice of law than to any other profession. Bryan Garner's book sets out to foster this art, which though widely cultivated by his colleagues, is far from universal. The accurate definition of the meaning of legal expressions, especially those easily confused, is central to his method; his recommended usages are supported by a
sound presentation of evidence. The approach is in the tradition of Henry Fowler, employing much the same blend of firmness, moderation, and humour. The guidance provided unlocks the whole armoury of
legal terminology and style. It ought to become a standard textbook."--Edmund S. C. Weiner, Co-Editor of the New Oxford English Dictionary
"Garner...has come to the rescue of his profession with a book which does not allow its main mission, which is to inform, to suppress a subsidiary mission to entertain."--Times Literary Supplement
"Words are the only tool of the lawyer. This book, which combines wise advice with a very readable style, will help any lawyer to use words effectively. I keep it within arm's reach at all times."--Charles Alan Wright, University of Texas, Austin
"Informative and entertaining....Every law library should have this book. In fact, every lawyer should have a personal copy and form the habit of consulting it regularly."--Legal Information ALERT
"Contains the answer to nearly every vexing question of English usage and meaning a lawyer can think of asking....I found myself leafing through the Dictionary, idly reading passage at random, enjoying the author's crisp writing and good-sense comments on proper English usage. I have not so spent time with any similar book since I discovered Fowler, and that is the greatest compliment I can pay....Should be on every lawyer's desk."--Oklahoma Law
Review
"My idea of a valuable reference work is one to which you turn for a specific answer but find yourself still swimming in twenty minutes later, pulled along from one entry to another. This book meets that test....It contains entries of value to writers of all stripes....Garner has produced a work of learning, taste, care, and wit."--ABA Journal
"A companion that will make tackling syntactical quagmires in the future a much more enjoyable pursuit."--Journal of Law and Commerce
"An extensive, practical guide to legal writing style and word usage which will help lawyers, law students, and anyone reading or writing legal documents to communicate more effectively."--Legal Reference Services Quarterly
"Garner has given to the legal profession [an] extraordinary book....Invaluable."--South Dakota Law Review
"...fascinating....It is an invaluable reference work, but it is also fun to read....This is a gift that any lawyer would cherish."--The Practical Lawyer
"...liberally strewn with fascinating facts from history and pithy quotations from the famous bound together by Garner's own talented hand. Our learned friend from Texas did it before (DMLU was first published in 1987), and he's done it again - only more so....We think you'll find the new DMLU a useful addition to your reference library and almost as entertaining to read as a Scott Turow thriller."--The Catchline (Bulletin of the Association of
Reporters of Judicial Decisions)
"Every administrative law judge should have the 9000 entries in this 948-page A-Z law dictionary/style guide handy as they write and edit their decisions."--National Association of Administrative Law Judges Newsletter
"A gem of a reference....As much a style guide as a legal dictionary, it presents practical advice on how to write clear legal prose..."--Reference and Research Book News
"...it should be on the desk of every academic and practitioner....Garner is a wonderful writer and researcher. This ambitious work is a giant contribution to legal scholarship....I recommend the Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage for all lawyers. This five-star reference book is a must for law libraries."--Bimonthly Review of Books
"There seems to be no linguistic topic he does not hold a vehement view on...The great strength of all the entries, whether controversial or not, is the compendious use of properly cited legal sources as examples."- Times Literary Supplement