illegal
Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.
Example
“This is illegal, you know!”
Other meanings
Forbidden by established rules.
“Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.”
Totally fictitious, and often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country.
Related words
- illegalisation
- illegalise
- illegalism
- illegalist
- illegalize
- illegalness
- illegal alien
- illegal combatant
- illegal forward kick
- illegal immigration
- illegal number
- illegal prime
Word history
From Latin "legalis".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “illegal” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.