Attorney General
- noun
- /əˈtɜrni ˈdʒɛnərəl/
- Formal
- Yesterday, the President appointed a new Attorney General to lead the Department of Justice.
- Assistant Attorney General
- the Attorney General's office
- U.S. Attorney General
Please welcome former attorney General Jeff Sessions.
- Please welcome former attorney General Jeff Sessions.
- Here is the letter from our attorney general that this is not illegal.
- And then one side information was provided to police and the attorney general, nothing was done.
- When you hear Leticia James, think of a state of New York attorney general.
- My problem here is of course a corrupt president picks a corrupt attorney general.
- yo-yo, you're going to put a federal monitor on the the sitting attorney general?
- Then we have William Barr, United States Attorney General, who's also being sued.
- No, being Attorney general does not give William Barr a bath.
- And all of a sudden now scrutiny on that New York attorney general amplifies substantially.
- I do not know William Barr, the attorney general under Donald Trump, who covered up Epstein.
- Bruising women is not cool unless you're the New York Attorney General Sneiderman.
Examples
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But remember this: I am the Attorney General of the United States.
Fiction book (1990) -
This action was approved by the Attorney General of the United States.
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Should I find out what the Attorney General needs?
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Speaker, yesterday the Attorney General said that any new deal would be much the same as the one already on the table.
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You know, any news has to go through the Attorney General's office.
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You will now be turned over to the U.S. Attorney General's office.
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We know that he approved payments to Liddy while he was Attorney General.
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Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure and my greatest honor to introduce the next Attorney General of the state of New York, Avery Cross!
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A prosecution may also be initiated by the Attorney General of a province.
Academic text (1991) -
Attorney General Holder opened a criminal investigation into the CIA.
How Senior
Surface Forms
Morphology
Partially transparent: 'attorney' clearly signals a legal representative, so learners can often infer the phrase refers to a legal officer. However, the word 'general' here is a postpositive adjective meaning 'chief' rather than the familiar military noun, and B1 learners may misinterpret it as a rank or fail to predict the government-role nuance without prior exposure.
Etymology
The title Attorney General comes from older English and French: attorney meant 'lawyer or agent' and general meant 'for everyone' or 'overall'. So the phrase names the government's main lawyer who 'represents the government' in legal matters.