Legal

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈliː.É¡É™l/
• Rhymes: -iːɡəl
• US IPA: /ˈliÉ¡É™l/

Origin

From Latin lēgālis ("legal"), from lēx ("law"). Compare loyal.

Full definition of legal

Adjective

1. Relating to the law or to lawyers.
• 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures trolls roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
2. legal profession
3. Having its basis in the law.
   legal precedent
4. Being allowed or prescribed by law.
• 2013-08-23, Waking life, After 50 years, legal segregation is a distant memory, and race in America is not the unbridgeable chasm it once was. The country has a black president. The sort of comity that King evoked, in which the descendants of slaves and of slave owners “sit down together at the table of brotherhood”, can be found in many places, including the Deep South. The rate of marriage between blacks and whites is rising.
5. legal motion
6. (informal) Above the age of consent or the legal drinking age.

Antonyms

• (allowed) banned, contraband, disallowed, forbidden, illegal, outlawed
• (concerning law) black-market, back-alley
• (over age of consent) underage

Derived terms

• legal beagle
• legal duty
• legal eagle
• legality
• legalese
• paralegal

Noun

1. (US, Canada) Paper in sheets 8½ in × 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm).

Derived terms

• legal-size