ENTER - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ENTERAuthored

The Law Mind • 1192 words

Definition

To enter, in law, carries two primary and distinct meanings depending on context.

1. Real property. To go upon land or premises for a legal purpose — most commonly for the purpose of taking or asserting possession. Entry in this sense is a physical act with legal consequences: it can perfect a claim, interrupt adverse possession, or constitute the first step in recovering possession of land. In strict historical usage, entry was considered a preliminary act distinct from the full assumption of possession, though in modern practice the two are treated as merged.

2. Practice and procedure. To formally place something before a court or cause it to be recorded among the court's records. An attorney enters an appearance; a clerk enters a judgment; a party enters a plea. In this sense, "enter" means to make official and of record — the act transforms an informal event into a legally operative one.

A third, narrower usage appears in criminal law: the entry element of burglary and breaking and entering requires that some part of the defendant's body, or an instrument used to commit the offense, cross the threshold of the structure. This usage bridges the physical and legal senses of the word.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space; to cause something to be received or inserted; to type something into a computer; to record something in an account; to become a party to an agreement; to become effective.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To come or go into; to pass into the interior of; to penetrate or pierce; to unite in or join; to be admitted to.

The common meaning captures the physical act of going in, and to some extent the recording function. But the legal meanings are more precise and consequential: entering land for purposes of possession is a formal legal act with defined effects on title and rights; entering something of record transforms it from event to legally operative fact. A researcher who reads "entry" in an older deed or court document and treats it as simple physical movement may miss significant legal content.

Common Confusion

Enter (real property) vs. enter (practice): These are distinct uses that share a word. In property contexts, "enter" concerns physical presence on land and its legal consequences. In procedural contexts, "enter" is about the official recording or placing before the court of a document, order, or appearance. Historical sources sometimes treat both usages in a single entry without clearly flagging the shift, which can mislead researchers working across contexts.

Entry vs. possession: Historical dictionaries acknowledge that entry and taking possession were once formally distinguished — entry being the act of going on the land, possession being the sustained legal relationship that followed. Modern usage has largely collapsed this distinction, but it surfaces in older cases and deeds where the difference mattered to the validity of a claim.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Forcible entry: Entry onto land accomplished by force, threats, or intimidation, giving rise to both civil and criminal remedies. Distinct from simple entry in that the manner of entry itself is the wrong.

Entry of judgment: The formal act by which a court's decision is recorded and becomes effective. Timing of entry determines when appeal periods and enforcement rights begin.

Entry for condition broken: A landlord's or grantor's re-entry onto land upon breach of a condition in a deed or lease, a common form of self-help remedy in historical property law that has been largely displaced by statutory eviction procedures.

Breaking and entering: The criminal law compound requiring both a breaking (overcoming any barrier, however slight) and an entry into a structure. See the Encyclopedia cross-reference below.

Why It Matters in Research

The procedural and property meanings operate in entirely different bodies of doctrine, and older sources do not always separate them cleanly. A researcher following a citation trail through 19th-century property cases will encounter "entry" as a term of art with specific technical weight — it could determine whether adverse possession was interrupted, whether a landlord had lawfully resumed possession, or whether a right of re-entry had been properly exercised. Missing the technical precision of the term in that context produces errors.

For procedural research, the phrase "entered of record" or "duly entered" signals that an act has been made legally effective, not merely performed. An appearance entered differs from an appearance made; a judgment entered differs from a verdict rendered. Researchers working with historical court records should attend to this distinction, as the moment of entry determined deadlines, rights, and finality.

In criminal law, the definition of "entry" for burglary purposes has been litigated extensively and varies by jurisdiction and by era. Pre-modern burglary required nighttime entry into a dwelling; modern statutes have broadened the offense significantly. The element of entry itself — what counts, how much, by what means — has its own doctrinal history that intersects with Breaking and Entering as a distinct offense.

The Anderson entry simply redirects to ENTRY, which is the more fully developed form in most historical dictionaries. Researchers should follow that cross-reference when using Anderson.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries largely agree on the core meanings. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier each give the real property definition first and note the same doctrinal point: that strict usage once distinguished the act of entry from the act of taking possession, but that the two have merged in practice. Burrill makes the same observation, citing authority for the proposition that entry is not confined to the original act of going upon the land.

Burrill and Black's both extend the definition to the procedural sense — placing a matter before a court and upon its records — with examples including appearance, rule, and judgment. Bouvier follows the same pattern.

What the historical dictionaries do not fully address: the criminal law sense of entry as an element of burglary and breaking and entering receives little treatment in these general dictionaries, which focus on property and practice. Researchers working on criminal law questions will find the dictionary sources thin and should turn to treatises and case law directly.

Anderson's redirection to ENTRY without independent treatment is a limitation — researchers using Anderson alone will miss the procedural gloss that the other sources provide.

Jurisdictional Note

The procedural meaning of "enter" — particularly when a judgment is considered entered and thus effective — varies by jurisdiction and by court rules. Federal courts and state courts differ on what constitutes entry of judgment for purposes of appeal deadlines. In real property, the right of re-entry and its legal consequences remain subject to significant state-law variation, particularly where statutory landlord-tenant regimes have displaced common law self-help remedies.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Breaking and Entering — The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia

ENTERmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In the law of real property. To go upon land for the purpose of taking possession of it. In strict usage, the enter- ing is preliminary to the taking possession, but in common parlance the entry is now merged in the taking possession. In practice. To place anything before a court, or upon or among the records, in a formal and regular manner, and usually in writing; as to "enter an appearance," to "enter a judgment." In this sense the word is nearly equivalent to setting down formally in writing, in either a full or abridged form.

ENTERmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

To go upon lands for the pur- pose of taking possession; to take posses- sion. In a strict use of terms, entry and taking possession would seem to be distinct parts of the same act; but, practically, en- try is now merged in taking possession. 1 Washb. R. P. 10, 32; Stearn, Real Act. 2. To cause to be put down upon the record. An attorney is said to enter his appearance, or the party himself may enter an appear- ance. See ENTRY. A provision in a post-office appropriation act referring to the entering of mail matter refers to second class mail as that is the only class to which the word "enter" can apply. 229 U. S. 288; §2 Post Office Appropriation Act of 1912.

ENTERcrossref

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

See ENTRY.

ENTERv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To come or go into; to pass into the interior of; to pass within the outer cover or shell of; to penetrate; to pierce; as, to enter a house, a closet, a country, a door, etc.; the river enters the sea. That darksome cave they enter. Spenser. I, . . . with the multitude of my redeemed, Shall enter heaven, long absent. Milton. To unite in; to join; to be admitted to; to become a member of; as, to enter an association, a college, an army. To engage in; to become occupied with; as, to enter the legal profession, the book trade, etc. To pass within the limits of; to attain; to begin; to commence upon; as, to enter one's teens, a new era, a new dispensation. To cause to go (into), or to be received (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted; as, to enter a knife into a piece of wood, a wedge into a log; to enter a boy at college, a horse for a race, etc. To inscribe; to enroll; to record; as, to enter a name, or a date, in a book, or a book in a catalogue; to enter the particulars of a sale in an account, a manifest of a ship or of merchandise at the customhouse. To go into or upon, as lands, and take actual possession of them. To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order; as, to enter a writ, appearance, rule, or judgment. Burrill. To make report of (a vessel or her cargo) at the customhouse; to submit a statement of (imported goods), with the original invoices, to the proper officer of the customs for estimating the duties. See Entry, To file or inscribe upon the records of the land office the required particulars concerning (a quantity of public land) in order to entitle a person to a right pf preëmption. [U.S.] Abbott. To deposit for copyright the title or description of (a book, picture, map, etc.); as, "entered according to act of Congress." To initiate; to introduce favorably. [Obs.] Shak.

ENTERv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To go or come in; -- often with in used pleonastically; also, to begin; to take the first steps. "The year entering." Evelyn. No evil thing approach nor enter in. Milton. Truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Is. lix. 14. For we which have believed do enter into rest. Heb. iv. 3. To get admission; to introduce one's self; to penetrate; to form or constitute a part; to become a partaker or participant; to share; to engage; -- usually with into; sometimes with on or upon; as, a ball enters into the body; water enters into a ship; he enters into the plan; to enter into a quarrel; a merchant enters into partnership with some one; to enter upon another's land; the boy enters on his tenth year; to enter upon a task; lead enters into the composition of pewter. To penetrate mentally; to consider attentively; -- with into. He is particularly pleased with . . . Sallust for his entering into internal principles of action. Addison.

enterverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space. | To cause to go (into), or to be received (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted. | To go or come into (a state or profession). | To type (something) into a computer; to input. | To record (something) in an account, ledger, etc. | To become a party to an agreement, treaty, etc. | To become effective; to come into effect. | To go into or upon, as lands, and take actual possession of them. | To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order | To make report of (a vessel or its cargo) at the custom house; to submit a statement of (imported goods), with the original invoices, to the proper customs officer for estimating the duties. See entry. | To file, or register with the land office, the required particulars concerning (a quantity of public land) in order to entitle a person to a right of preemption. | To deposit for copyright the title or description of (a book, picture, map, etc.). | To initiate; to introduce favourably. | To begin (a regular activity or job); to undertake; to take up.

enternoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Alternative spelling of Enter (“the computer key”). | Alternative spelling of Enter (“a stroke of the computer key”).

Enternoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

The "Enter" key on a computer keyboard. | A stroke of the Enter key.

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