The paper deals with the issue of legal vocabulary – legal terms – from the point of view of lawyers and the public. Legal terms, especially multi-word terms, are motivated by a common lexis, but at the same time the legal definition may not conform to the everyday understanding of the words in Slovak. This often leads to the misunderstanding of the text of the law, when an ordinary language user with no legal training, departing from the ordinary meaning of the word in Slovak, understands the content of the legal term incorrectly. The paper also addresses the possible existence of polysemic terminology within one discipline and jurisprudence, and the resulting problems in institutional communication. The specificity of legal terms stems from the oscillation between the public and specialists in the area of law. Explanations of the terms should be a compromise between a text comprehensible for laymen and a definition that does not deform the meaning of the term for lawyers. Achieving harmony between the simplified explanation of the term and its understanding in the legal sense is fundamental for the creation of the Dictionary of Legal Terms for the Public.
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