Skip to main content
attorney general

attorney general

166 5.4
The chief lawyer for a country or state who represents the government in court
  • noun
  • /əˈtɜrni ˈdʒɛnərəl/
  • Formal
translation icon : fiscal general
  • As the chief legal officer, the attorney general represents the government in important court cases.
  • deputy attorney general
  • assistant attorney general
  • attorney general's office

But while Mitchell served as attorney general, Mcgruder was the acting boss.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • By filing his complaint Thursday, the attorney general has taken over the action.

    Blog text (8)
  • -Should we tell the attorney general?

  • - Who says so? - The attorney general.

  • And it it turns out it was in the media actually that the case was so high profile that the attorney general got involved.

  • Right now, Donald Trump is telling his attorney general to shut down the investigation of Donald Trump.

  • In 2010, the general election for attorney general in Arizona was a tight one.

    Blog text (10)
  • The local investigator or the deputy attorney general changed the report.

  • Madam Vice President, the attorney general is here.

  • Ultimately, the assistant attorney general must make a decision on what course to pursue.

    Academic text (1991)
  • The president isn't a client of the attorney general.

Surface Forms

Morphology

attorney + general

The parts 'attorney' (lawyer) and 'general' (meaning overall or chief) together plausibly yield 'chief lawyer', so a learner who knows both words can often infer the intended meaning. However, the postpositive adjective order and the formal/title usage — plus the competing sense of 'general' (military/common) — make the relation not fully regular or immediately obvious to all B1 learners.

Etymology

Attorney general: The name attorney general comes from old legal speech where the describing word came after the noun, so general meant 'for everyone' or 'chief'. It pictures an attorney who speaks and acts for the whole country or state, which is why today it means 'the main government lawyer'.