PROBABLE CAUSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does probable cause mean? 

• PROBABLE CAUSE (noun)
  The noun PROBABLE CAUSE has 1 sense:

1. (law) evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search and seizure

  Familiarity information: PROBABLE CAUSE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROBABLE CAUSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(law) evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search and seizure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

a magistrate determined that there was probable cause to search the house

Hypernyms ("probable cause" is a kind of...):

evidence; grounds (your basis for belief or disbelief; knowledge on which to base belief)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 Context examples 

She had too old a regard for him to be so wholly estranged as might in two meetings extinguish every past hope, and leave him nothing to do but to keep away from Uppercross: but there was such a change as became very alarming, when such a man as Captain Wentworth was to be regarded as the probable cause.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)