scienter

[ sahy-en-ter ]
/ saɪˈɛn tər /
Law.

noun

a mental state in which one has knowledge that one’s action, statement, etc., is wrong, deceptive, or illegal: often used as a standard of guilt: The court found that the company had the requisite scienter for securities fraud.

adverb

knowingly or deliberately: His wife’s statements were made scienter.

Origin of scienter

< Latin scienter ‘knowingly’ < scient- (stem of sciēns); see science

Words nearby scienter

science, science dictionary, science fiction, science museum, science park, scienter, scientia est potentia, sciential, scientific, scientific content analysis, scientific creationism

British Dictionary definitions for scienter

scienter
/ (saɪˈɛntə) /

adverb

law knowingly; wilfully

Word Origin for scienter

from Latin