(a) Words used in this code in the present tense include the
future as well as the present; words used in the masculine gender
include the feminine and neuter; the singular number includes the
plural and the plural the singular; the word "person" includes a
corporation as well as a natural person; the word "county" includes
"city and county"; writing includes printing and typewriting; oath
includes affirmation or declaration; and every mode of oral
statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term
"testify," and every written one in the term "depose"; signature or
subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his or her
name being written near it by a person who writes his or her own name
as a witness; provided, that when a signature is by mark it must, in
order that the same may be acknowledged or may serve as the
signature to any sworn statement, be witnessed by two persons who
must subscribe their own names as witness thereto.
   (b) The following words have in this code the signification
attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the
context:
   (1) The word "property" includes both real and personal property.

   (2) The words "real property" are coextensive with lands,
tenements, and hereditaments.
   (3) The words "personal property" include money, goods, chattels,
things in action, and evidences of debt.
   (4) The word "month" means a calendar month, unless otherwise
expressed.
   (5) The word "will" includes codicil.
   (6) The word "writ" signifies an order or precept in writing,
issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer,
and the word "process" signifies a writ or summons issued in the
course of judicial proceedings.
   (7) The word "state," when applied to the different parts of the
United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories,
and the words "United States" may include the district and
territories.
   (8) The word "section," whenever hereinafter employed, refers to a
section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly
mentioned.
   (9) The word "affinity," when applied to the marriage relation,
signifies the connection existing in consequence of marriage, between
each of the married persons and the blood relatives of the other.
   (10) The word "sheriff" shall include "marshal."

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Last modified: July 31, 2008