"letter of the law" meaning in English

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "letter of the law",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English singularia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Singularia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
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          "source": "w"
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          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law",
          "orig": "en:Law",
          "parents": [
            "Justice",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The strict interpretation of the law or rules."
      ],
      "id": "en-letter_of_the_law-en-noun-icTwx-AE",
      "links": [
        [
          "strict",
          "strict"
        ],
        [
          "interpretation",
          "interpretation"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ],
        [
          "rule",
          "rule"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(singular only) The strict interpretation of the law or rules."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "black-letter law"
        },
        {
          "word": "dead letter"
        },
        {
          "word": "literalism"
        },
        {
          "word": "spirit of the law"
        },
        {
          "word": "to the letter"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "singular",
        "singular-only"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "法律的字面意義"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "fǎlǜ de zìmiàn yìyì",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "法律的字面意义"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "法律條文"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "fǎlǜ tiáowén",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "法律条文"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "litero de leĝo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "lain kirjain"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Buchstaben des Gesetzes"
        },
        {
          "code": "mnw",
          "lang": "Mon",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "word": "နကဵုလိက်ပ္ဍဲနှောဝ်ဥပဒေဂှ်"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "litera prawa"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Letter and spirit of the law"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "letter of the law"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
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      "expansion": "letter of the law",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "black-letter law"
    },
    {
      "word": "dead letter"
    },
    {
      "word": "literalism"
    },
    {
      "word": "spirit of the law"
    },
    {
      "word": "to the letter"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
        "English singularia tantum",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "en:Law"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The strict interpretation of the law or rules."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "strict",
          "strict"
        ],
        [
          "interpretation",
          "interpretation"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ],
        [
          "rule",
          "rule"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(singular only) The strict interpretation of the law or rules."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "singular",
        "singular-only"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Letter and spirit of the law"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "法律的字面意義"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "fǎlǜ de zìmiàn yìyì",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "法律的字面意义"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "法律條文"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "fǎlǜ tiáowén",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "法律条文"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "litero de leĝo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "lain kirjain"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Buchstaben des Gesetzes"
    },
    {
      "code": "mnw",
      "lang": "Mon",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "word": "နကဵုလိက်ပ္ဍဲနှောဝ်ဥပဒေဂှ်"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "strict interpretation of the law",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "litera prawa"
    }
  ],
  "word": "letter of the law"
}