gravamen
/ɡrəˈveɪmɛn/
noun LAW
noun: gravamen; plural noun: gravamina
- the essence or most serious part of a complaint or accusation.
“a constitutional violation may comprise the gravamen of a plaintiff’s complaint” - a grievance.
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’.