Thomson Reuters Publishes 11th Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary

Thomson Reuters has just released Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition. As the most widely cited resource in legal arguments and judicial opinions, Black’s Law Dictionary has been the gold standard for ensuring a common understanding of the growing language of the law for nearly 130 years.

The greatly expanded 11th edition, with new material throughout, is the most practical, comprehensive, scholarly and authoritative law dictionary ever published. With clarity and rigor, it defines more than 55,000 law-related words and phrases, recording their historical and present-day nuances. Some 3,500 terms are new to this edition, including car hacking, contempt of cop, doxing, flash rob, kakistocracy, mugshot extortion, porch pirate, skeuomorph, synthetic identity theft and twocking.

During the 25 years since he was named editor in chief, Bryan A. Garner has become well known as the world’s leading legal lexicographer. To affirm Black’s Law Dictionary as the most thorough scholarly work on legal terminology, Garner assembled an unmatched roster of academic and practicing contributors who vetted every term for accuracy. “Never before has such a distinguished lineup of legal talent been arrayed in support of a legal reference work,” said Garner. “As legal language continually evolves, it is crucial for every lawyer to understand how legal terms are used today.”

In addition to the new terms, there is expanded bibliographic coverage that now includes more than 1,000 sources. Also, more than 900 Latin maxims have been added, newly translated and carefully indexed for this edition, making Black’s Law Dictionary the most thorough and reliable source for these important, yet often elusive, sayings.

“We are honored to publish this important new edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, a title that is highly regarded and one of our most popular,” said Jill Roisum, who leads Commentary for Thomson Reuters. “The words in our legal lexicon are the basis of all law practice, and it is key for lawyers to know and understand not only traditional terms but also the new living language of the law.”  

To learn more about Black’s Law Dictionary, click here. And visit Legal Current for definitions of the terms noted above. You can also follow @legalcurrent for more new terms and definitions from the 11th edition.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading provider of news and information-based tools to professionals. Our worldwide network of journalists and specialist editors keep customers up to speed on global developments, with a particular focus on legal, regulatory, and tax changes. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com.

Bryan A. Garner

Professor Garner is president of LawProse, Inc. of Dallas and serves as distinguished research professor of law at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of more than 20 books, including Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage (3d ed. 2011), Garner’s Modern English Usage (4th ed. 2016) and Legal Writing in Plain English (2d ed. 2013). For Thomson Reuters, he co-authored two books with Justice Antonin Scalia, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008) and Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (2012). For more information, go to www.lawprose.org.