Words / A / Law

ab initio

adverb/æb ɪˈnɪʃiˌəʊ/

C2CEFR level
88/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister

From the very beginning, used to describe something treated as invalid or valid from its inception.

Because the parties never had capacity to contract, the agreement was void ab initio.

Similar: from the outset

Topic: Legal Latin in Legal English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More law words: Legal Latin