''Supra'' (Latin for "above") is an

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

legal citation Legal citation is the practice of crediting and referring to authoritative documents and sources. The most common sources of authority cited are court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writin ...

signal used when a writer desires to refer a reader to an earlier-cited authority. For example, an author wanting to refer to a source in their third footnote could cite this as: "See ''supra'' note 3". Or for text in that note: "See ''supra'' text accompanying note 3". Traditionally ''Vide'' (Latin for "see" or more broadly "perceive") would be used instead of see, so those citations would instead be written as "''Vide supra'' — note 3" and "''Vide supra'' — text accompanying note 3". Supra can also be used to provide a short form citation to an earlier (but not immediately preceding) authority. For example: # Stephen J. Legatzke, Note, The Equitable Recoupment Doctrine in United States v. Dalm: Where's the Equity, 10 Va. Tax Rev. 861 (1991). # Legatzke, ''supra'' note 1, at 862. In this example, the second citation refers the reader to page 862 in the journal in which the article by Legatzke appears. The use of supra should be done with care and only when the user fully understands its usage as it could be very confusing to readers if not used appropriately. More generally, the phrase '' vide supra'' or ''v.s.'', often enclosed in parentheses, is used simply to refer the reader to preceding text.

See also