{
  "id": "license.legal",
  "term": "license",
  "sense": "legal",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 10,
  "arena": "license",
  "domain": "legal",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a right by law",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "law.rule",
      "rights.moral"
    ],
    "interaction": "the law enables the right and together they create a document",
    "novel_properties": [
      "authorized permission",
      "official document"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The FDA granted Moderna an emergency use authorization to distribute its COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion, taking license to its open-source hosting platform and user agreements.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "California requires drivers to pass a vision test and pay $38 for a renewed operator license every eight years.",
      "domain": "everyday life"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "rights.moral",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "license",
    "licensed",
    "licenses",
    "licensing"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-license.legal"
}