Abstract. Terminological ambiguity in criminal law presents significant challenges for legal interpretation, judicial consistency, and effective communication across languages. This study investigates the role of forensic linguistics in identifying, analyzing, and resolving ambiguities in criminal-law terminology, with a focus on English and Uzbek legal texts. Employing a mixed-methods approach, a corpus of statutes, judicial decisions, and legal commentaries was analyzed using semantic, collocational, and discourse-level techniques to detect lexical vagueness, polysemy, and translation inconsistencies. Results indicate that certain core criminal-law terms exhibit persistent ambiguity across texts and jurisdictions, often leading to divergent interpretations in legal practice. Comparative analysis reveals that cross-linguistic and cross-jurisdictional differences exacerbate these ambiguities, highlighting the importance of context-sensitive semantic interpretation. The discussion emphasizes the practical implications for legal drafting, statutory interpretation, and translation, proposing forensic-linguistic strategies to enhance terminological clarity and reduce interpretive disputes. This research contributes to the interdisciplinary integration of linguistics and criminal law, demonstrating how empirical linguistic methods can inform doctrinal analysis and policy-making. By providing evidence-based recommendations for standardizing terminology and improving legal communication, the study offers valuable insights for lawmakers, translators, and legal practitioners engaged in multilingual and cross-jurisdictional criminal-law contexts.

Keywords: forensic linguistics, legal terminology, criminal law, terminological ambiguity, legal translation, corpus analysis, ontology.

Download: | DOI: 10.17148/IMRJR.2026.030205