illegal.
Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.
Meaning & usage
Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.
This is illegal, you know!
Nearly 40 million people live in UK areas with illegal air pollution
Forbidden by established rules.
Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.
The computer program performed an illegal operation and was terminated.
Totally fictitious, and often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country.
Being or doing something illegally.
illegal immigrant
illegal logger
Being an illegal immigrant; residing in a country illegally.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping of illegal alien or illegal immigrant.
An illegal act or technique.
Contraband, esp. illegal substances such as drugs.
Ellipsis of illegal immigrant.
A spy operating abroad illegally and under non-official cover, without visible ties to his or her country’s authorities.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping of illegal alien or illegal immigrant.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.