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Law and Literature: Reference Resources

The objective of this guide is to facilitate the students in their course and discussion about the role of the law, the life it rules over and administers, and the complex nature of circumstances of the law.

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Online Dictionaries

Legal Dictionary (FindLaw)

The FindLaw Legal Dictionary -- free access to over 8260 definitions of legal terms. Search for a definition or browse our legal glossaries.

Legal Glossary (Nolo)

Find plain-English definitions for legal terms by browsing Nolo's Plain-English Law Dictionary

Phrase Finder  

1,800 English idioms, phrases and expressions, with their meanings and origins explained.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Ed. 

Allows regular and wildcard searching, so you can find all the words ending in a given suffix. 

Your dictionary.com (A Web of Online Dictionaries) 

It provides links to more than 400 dictionaries in more than 130 different languages.

Dictionary.com 

Dictionary.com is a free online dictionary, thesaurus, translator, word of the day, crossword puzzles and word games, and vocabulary learning resources for many languages.

Roget's Thesaurus 

This thesaurus is searchable by headword or full text.

Webster Thesaurus 

It is an online version of the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.

Thesaurus.com 

It is an online version of Roget's Thesaurus of English words and phrases.

Encyclopedias

Britannica Online Academic Edition    

Online version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Use this powerful resource to search or browse for information in encyclopedias, magazines, videos, and Web sites.

Highbeam Encyclopedia 

Encyclopedia.com has more than 100 trusted sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses with facts, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins, and abbreviations.

Wex    

Welcome to Wex, LII's community-built, freely available legal dictionary and legal encyclopedia.