attorney
Pluralattorneys
Pluralattorneys
Formsattorneys, attorneying, attorneyed
- 1A professional who practices law, giving legal advice to clients or acting for them in legal matters, including one who prosecutes a case for the state.
The defendant's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Several attorneys reviewed the contract before anyone signed it.
UsagePlural attorneys. You hire an attorney for a case, and the word often goes before another noun: attorney fees.
Similarlawyer
Note
American English uses this as the everyday professional word, broadly interchangeable with lawyer and counsel, while British English usually divides the same work between solicitors and barristers (advocates in Scotland).
- 2An agent or representative authorized to act on another person's behalf, according to that person's instructions.
While he was serving overseas, his wife acted as his attorney, signing the lease and paying the taxes in his name.
In the signed form, she named her nephew as her attorney, giving him authority to manage her money if she became ill.
UsageOften act as someone's attorney or name someone as your attorney; the document is a power of attorney.
Similaragent, proxy, representative, deputy
Oppositeprincipal
Note
The sense closest to the word's origin in 'one appointed': here an attorney is anyone given authority to act for another, lawyer or not. That authority is usually granted by a power of attorney, and its holder is called an attorney-in-fact. The title separates them from the professional lawyer, an attorney-at-law. Agent, proxy and representative come close, but attorney is the word the law itself uses for this appointed role.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The appointed representative sense reflects the word's etymological meaning. en.wiktionary.org
- An authorized representative need not be a lawyer. law.cornell.edu
- A power of attorney grants authority to a representative called an attorney or attorney-in-fact. en.wikipedia.org
- Attorney-at-law identifies the professional lawyer, distinguishing that role from attorney-in-fact. en.wikipedia.org
- Legislation uses attorney for an appointed representative. bclaws.gov.bc.ca
- 3A title of respect placed before a lawyer's name, usually capitalized and often abbreviated as Atty.
Attorney Mendoza signed the affidavit in front of the clerk.
The invitation was addressed to Attorney Patricia Vance.
UsageWorks like Doctor: Attorney or Atty. + the person's name, usually with no the in front.
Note
A title used before a name the way Doctor is, especially in Philippine English and occasionally in the US. The title belongs to the qualification rather than the job, so qualified lawyers keep it even when they earn their living some other way.
Less common meanings
- 4A legal practitioner who acted for clients in the courts of common law, in earlier British usage.
In Georgian England, an attorney prepared the pleadings for a case in King's Bench, while a barrister argued it before the judges.
Country attorneys handled the debt suits of local tradesmen and sent the papers up to London.
Note
A title from English legal history, current until the late nineteenth century. The attorney handled clients' business in the common-law courts, while a solicitor did comparable work in equity and a proctor in the church courts. After the Judicature Acts of 1873–75 merged these offices, solicitor became the name for all of them, which is why attorney now sounds old-fashioned to British ears.
- 5A disparaging British word for a solicitor.
Similarsolicitor
Note
A rare British sneer that leans on the old common-law title that solicitor replaced. Where an American hears only the neutral professional word, a British listener may hear contempt. That makes the usage safest in reported speech or in deliberate scorn, and worth avoiding when you simply mean someone's solicitor.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Attorney was a professional title for a lawyer practising in the common-law courts. en.wiktionary.org
- Solicitor replaced attorney as the professional title. en.wikipedia.org
- 6To work in the profession of a legal attorney.
Similarpractice
Note
A rare verb made directly from the noun and used without an object, as in she attorneyed for decades. Its forms are regular (attorneys, attorneying, attorneyed) and keep the y before -ed rather than changing it to i. Because the verb is so uncommon, most writers would say practice law instead, keeping attorney for the person.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- In the sense of working as an attorney, the verb is intransitive. en.wiktionary.org
- The regular inflections are attorneys, attorneying and attorneyed, retaining y before -ed. en.wiktionary.org
- 7To provide someone with a legal attorney.
Note
The transitive partner of the verb for practicing law. Here the object is the client who receives representation, as in the state agreed to attorney the prisoners. It is rare enough to read almost as a coinage, so in formal writing provide counsel for or appoint a lawyer for says the same thing without surprising the reader.
- 8A tropical American tree or shrub of the genus Clusia, usually called Scotch attorney or attorney tree; many species start life growing on other trees.
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Practice
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Origin
The word began as atorné, the past participle of Old French atorner ("to attorn"), used for "one appointed or constituted," and English took it in as Middle English attourne.