Word.ws English Dictionary

expressio unius est exclusio alterius

expressio unius est exclusio alterius phrase: a canon of construction holding that, when a legal document includes a list, anything not in that list is assumed to be purposely excluded.

Phrase

expressio unius est exclusio alterius

  1. A canon of construction holding that, when a legal document includes a list, anything not in that list is assumed to be purposely excluded.

Origin of expressio unius est exclusio alterius

From Latin.

Questions about expressio unius est exclusio alterius

What does expressio unius est exclusio alterius mean?
Expressio unius est exclusio alterius means a canon of construction holding that, when a legal document includes a list, anything not in that list is assumed to be purposely excluded.
What part of speech is expressio unius est exclusio alterius?
Expressio unius est exclusio alterius is a phrase.

Words near expressio unius est exclusio alterius in the dictionary

  1. expressibility
  2. expressible
  3. expressibly
  4. expressing
  5. expressing oneself
  6. expressio unius est exclusio alterius
  7. expression
  8. expression of interest
  9. expression stop
  10. expression stops
  11. expression template

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: expressio unius est exclusio alterius (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “expressio unius est exclusio alterius.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expressio_unius_est_exclusio_alterius. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.