gravamen

Definitions


[ɡrəˈveɪmɛn], (Noun)

Definitions:
- the essence or most serious part of a complaint or accusation
(e.g: a constitutional violation may comprise the gravamen of a plaintiff's complaint)


Phrases:

Origin:
early 17th century (as an ecclesiastical term denoting formal presentation of a grievance): from late Latin, literally ‘physical inconvenience’, from Latin gravare ‘to load’, from gravis ‘heavy’




definition by Oxford Dictionaries