Skip to Main Content
Bowdoin College Library <Ask Us!

Law Research Guide: Legal Dictionaries

Legal Dictionaries

Black's Law Dictionary Best Bet
Main Ref KF156 .B53 2014
Black's Law Dictionary is also in Westlaw under All Content > Secondary Sources.

Collins Dictionary of Law, 2006

A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage
Main Ref KF156 .G367 1995

Findlaw Legal Dictionary

Nolo's Free Dictionary of Law Terms and Legal Definitions

Glossary of Legal Terms, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the Federal Judiciary.

Prince's dictionary of legal abbreviations
Main Libr KF246 .B46 2017
A dictionary and a reverse dictionary of abbreviations, including those used in Bluebook-style citations.

Historical Legal Dictionaries

Historical law dictionaries are valuable for their inclusion of then-contemporaneous terminology.

Legal Dictionaries, Georgetown Law Library

Black

1891, 1st ed.: A dictionary of law: containing definitions of the terms and phrases of American and English jurisprudence, ancient and modern; including the principal terms of international, constitutional, and commercial law; with a collection of legal maxims and numerous select titles from the civil law and other foreign systems. Henry Campbell Black.
Via Internet Archive, HathiTrust.

1910, 2nd ed.: A law dictionary containing definitions of the terms and phrases of American and English jurisprudence, ancient and modern: and including the principal terms of international, constitutional, ecclesiastical, and commercial law, and medical jurisprudence, with a collection of legal maxims, numerous select titles from the Roman, modern civil, Scotch, French, Spanish, and Mexican law, and other foreign systems, and a table of abbreviations. Henry Campbell Black.
Via Internet Archive, Internet Archive, Internet Archive.

Bouvier

1839: A law dictionary: adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union: with references to the civil and other systems of foreign law. John Bouvier.
Volumes 1-2.

1843, 2nd ed.: A law dictionary, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1848, 3rd ed.: A law dictionary : adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2.

1856, 6th ed.: A law dictionary, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1862, 11th ed.: A law dictionary, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several States of the American Union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1880, 14th ed.: A law dictionary, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1890, 15th ed.: A law dictionary, adapted to the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and of the several states of the American union. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1897: Bouvier's law dictionary. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2

1914, 8th ed., 3rd rev.: Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia. John Bouvier.
Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

Ballentine's

Ballentine's Law Dictionary, 3rd Edition, 1969. Via Nexis Uni.