Words / S / Law

shall

verb

A2CEFR level
20/100Rarity: fairly common
TechnicalRegister

Imposing a binding obligation or duty on a party to do or refrain from doing something.

The Contractor shall complete the works by the date specified in the Schedule.

Similar: must, is obliged to

Topic: Legal drafting 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 drafting