lawyer

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• lawer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English lawyer, lawer, equivalent to law +‎ -yer.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪə(r)

Noun

lawyer (plural lawyers)

1. A professional person qualified (as by a law degree and/or bar exam) and authorized to practice law, i.e. conduct lawsuits and/or give legal advice.
   • 1907, Robert Chambers, chapter 2/1, The Younger Set^[1]:

     His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers ; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon ; […] .

2. By extension, a legal layman who argues points of law.

Synonyms

• advocate
• attorney
• counselor

Derived terms

Terms derived from lawyer

corporate lawyer jailhouse lawyer

lawyering lawyerly

Translations

professional person authorized to practice law

• Afrikaans: regsgeleerde (af), prokureur (af), advokaat (af)
• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: مُحامي (ar) (muHāmii) m, (indefinite) محامٍ (ar) (muHāmii) m

  Egyptian Arabic: محامي (muHaamii) m

• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: փաստաբան (hy) (p'astaban) , իրավաբան (hy) (iravaban) 
• Azeri: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: адвокат (bg) (advokát) m 
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: advocat (ca) m, advocada (ca) f
• Chechen: юрист
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 律師 (cmn), 律师 (cmn) (lǜshī)

  Min Nan: 律師 (nan) (lu̍t-su), 辯護士 (nan) (piān-hō͘-sū)

• Crimean Tatar: advokat
• Czech: právník (cs) m, advokát (cs) m
• Danish: advokat (da) c, sagfører (da) c
• Dutch: jurist (nl) m, raadsman (nl) m; informally also advocaat (nl) m, advocate (nl) f
• Esperanto: juristo (eo)
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: sakførari (fo) m
• Finnish: asianajaja, (juristi, lakimies)
• French: juriste (fr) m and f, homme de loi (fr) m; informally also avocat (fr) m, avocate (fr) f
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: ადვოკატი (ka) (advokati) 
• German: Rechtsanwalt (de) m
• Greek: δικηγόρος (el) m and f (dikigóros)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: עורך דין (he) (orékh-dín) m, עורכת דין (he) (orékhet-dín) f
• Hindi: वकील (hi) (vakīl) m
• Hungarian: jogász (hu)
• Icelandic: lögfræðingur (is) m
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: advocato (ia)
• Interlingue: please add this translation if you can

• Italian: avvocato (it) m, legale (it)
• Japanese: 弁護士 (ja) (べんごし, bengoshi), 法曹 (ja) (ほうそう, hōsō)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: មេធាវី (km) (meitʰievii)
• Korean: 변호사 (ko) (辯護士, byeonhosa)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: پارێزه‌ر (ku)

• Lao: ນັກກົດໝາຍ (lo)
• Latin: legisperitus (la), praetor (la)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: правник (mk) (právnik) m, адвокат (mk) (advokát) m
• Malay: peguam (ms), loyar (ms)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: please add this translation if you can
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: advokat (no) m, (archaic) sakfører (no) m
• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: وکیل (fa) (vakil)
• Polish: adwokat (pl) m, prawnik (pl) m (prawniczka (pl) f), radca (pl) m
• Portuguese: advogado (pt) m, advogada (pt) f
• Romanian: avocat (ro), advocat (ro)
• Russian: юрист (ru) (juríst) m , адвокат (ru) (advokát) m 
• Skolt Sami: juri´stt
• Slovene: odvetnik (sl) m, odvetnica (sl) f, advokat (sl) m, advokatka (sl) f
• Spanish: abogado (es) m, abogada (es) f, notario (es) m
• Swahili: wakili (sw)
• Swedish: advokat (sv) c
• Tajik: please add this translation if you can
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: న్యాయవాది (te) (nyāyavādi)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: avukat (tr)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Urdu: وکیل (ur) (vakīl) m
• Uzbek: advokat (uz)
• Vietnamese: luật sư (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) lavogan (vo), (♂) hilavogan (vo), (♀) jilavogan (vo), (crown ♂♀) kronalavogan (vo), (♂) kronahilavogan (vo), (♀) kronajilavogan (vo)
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: אַדװאָקאַט (yi) (advokat) m

a layman who argues points of law

• Dutch: pleiter (nl) m, (juridisch) raadsman m; informally also advocaat m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: адвокат (advokát) m
• Gujarati: વકીલ (gu) (vakīla)

• Italian: avvocato m
• Latin: legisperitus m

See also

• solicitor
• barrister

Verb

lawyer (third-person singular simple present lawyers, present participle lawyering, simple past and past participle lawyered)

1. (informal) To practice law.
2. To perform, or attempt to perform, the work of a lawyer.
3. To make legalistic arguments.
4. With "up", to acquire the services of a lawyer.
5. (colloquial, criminal law) With "up", to exercise the right to ask for the presence of one's attorney.
6. To barrage with questions in order to get the person to admit something, usually used in the past tense "[You've been] lawyered."

Related terms

• lawyer up

Anagrams

• warely