Word.ws English Dictionary

rule of lenity

rule of lenity noun: a common law rule according to which an ambiguous criminal law should be interpreted in the way most favorable to the defendant.

Noun

rule of lenity

  1. A common law rule according to which an ambiguous criminal law should be interpreted in the way most favorable to the defendant.

Questions about rule of lenity

What does rule of lenity mean?
Rule of lenity means a common law rule according to which an ambiguous criminal law should be interpreted in the way most favorable to the defendant.
What part of speech is rule of lenity?
Rule of lenity is a noun.

Words near rule of lenity in the dictionary

  1. rule of decision
  2. rule of engagement
  3. rule of five
  4. rule of four
  5. rule of law
  6. rule of lenity
  7. rule of man
  8. rule of order
  9. rule of reason
  10. rule of recognition
  11. rule of sevens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rule of lenity (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.

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