litigation

noun

lit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌli-tə-ˈgā-shən 

plural litigations

: the act, process, or practice of settling a dispute in a court of law : the act or process of litigating

an issue that has been in litigation for years

an attorney who specializes in the litigation of property disputes

The American Judicial System generally limits the filing of lawsuits to individuals with a personal stake in the litigation, but there are instances when litigants cannot themselves prosecute an action.

—Jonathan Mahler

also : a legal action or proceeding (such as a lawsuit)

"You can't realize how much it costs to run one of these litigations. To get a battery of lawyers into a courtroom and do all the planning … and so on costs $500,000."

—Gordon Gould

Examples of litigation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the toolbox for Democrats is relatively sparse, aside from litigation or legislative protests. —New York Times, 24 July 2025

Ongoing litigation includes Disney and Universal suing image generation tool Midjourney, the New York Times squaring up against ChatGPT owner OpenAI and Microsoft, and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post versus AI startup Perplexity. —John Kell, Fortune, 23 July 2025

Regarding the lawsuit, a Roblox spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation but emphasized the company’s commitment to child safety. —Alison Escalante, Forbes.com, 23 July 2025

The city of Detroit's Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett indicated through a city spokesman that the city will not be commenting on pending litigation. —Christina Hall, Freep.com, 23 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1612, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing litigation

• in litigation

Rhymes for litigation

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation