Word.ws English Dictionary

pro se

pro se adjective: representing oneself (in court); without an attorney.

Adjective

pro se (not comparable)

  1. Representing oneself (in court); without an attorney.

Adverb

pro se (not comparable)

  1. Representing oneself in court; without an attorney.
    • Previously, [public defender] Rutherford had called [defendant] Appleby "a fag" in open court and asked to be removed from the case. Appleby has also sought Rutherford's removal. All requests have been denied. Appleby is now acting pro se, with Rutherford ordered by the court to act as advisor.1980 February 9, Mitzel, “Appleby is Back In Court Again”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 6

Origin of pro se

From Latin pro se.

Questions about pro se

What does pro se mean?
Pro se means representing oneself (in court); without an attorney.
What part of speech is pro se?
Pro se can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near pro se in the dictionary

  1. pro nav
  2. pro parte
  3. pro per
  4. pro rata
  5. pro re nata
  6. pro se
  7. pro shop
  8. pro shops
  9. pro skirt
  10. pro skirts
  11. pro skub

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pro se (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: “pro se.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pro_se. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.