Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or concerned with law: legal papers.
- adj. Authorized by or based on law: a legal right.
- adj. Established by law; statutory: the legal owner.
- adj. In conformity with or permitted by law: legal business operations.
- adj. Recognized or enforced by law rather than by equity.
- adj. In terms of or created by the law: a legal offense.
- adj. Applicable to or characteristic of attorneys or their profession.
- n. One that is in accord with certain rules or laws.
- n. Investments that may be legally made by fiduciaries and certain institutions, such as savings banks and insurance companies. Also called legal list.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining or relating to law; connected with the law: as, legal doctrines or studies; a legal document or controversy; legal arguments.
- According or conformable to law; permitted or warranted by the law or laws; lawful; not forbidden by law; having the force of law: as, the action is strictly legal; legal traffic or commerce.
- Pertaining to the provisions or administration of the law; determined by or in accordance with law; judicial: as, legal proceedings; a legal opinion or decision; a legal standard or test.
- Amenable to remedy or punishment by law as distinguished from equity: as, legal waste; legal irregularity.
- Created by law; recognized by law: as, legal incapacity; a legal infant; legal crimes.
- In theology, according to the Mosaic law or dispensation; according or pertaining to the doctrine of reliance on good works for salvation, as distinguished from that of free grace.
- Synonyms and Legitimate, etc. (see lawful); legalized, authorized, allowable, just, constitutional.
- n. In Scots law, same as legal reversion (which see, under I.).
Wiktionary
- adj. Relating to the law or to lawyers, as in legal profession.
- adj. Having its basis in the law, such as legal precedent.
- adj. Being allowed or prescribed by law, such as a legal motion.
- adj. slang Above the age of consent, most often concerning attractive but young adolescent girls.
- n. US, Canada Paper in sheets 8½ in × 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Created by, permitted by, in conformity with, or relating to, law.
- adj. According to the law of works, as distinguished from free grace; or resting on works for salvation.
- adj. According to the old or Mosaic dispensation; in accordance with the law of Moses.
- adj. (Law) Governed by the rules of law as distinguished from the rules of equity
WordNet 3.0
- adj. established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules
- adj. of or relating to jurisprudence
- adj. having legal efficacy or force
- adj. relating to or characteristic of the profession of law
- adj. allowed by official rules
Etymologies
- From Latin lēgālis ("legal"), from lēx ("law"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin lēgālis, from lēx, lēg-, law; see leg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They point out that in the legal sense put forth by the constitution there is no reason to think that a fetus is a *legal* person.”
“Besides, do these illegals really want guest worker programs, or just to get all the benefits of citizenship without going through the legal process like the *legal* immigrants?”
“The present Law Officers of the Crown were rather startled at the intention of departing from the precedent of George IV. 's reign, on seeing the legal opinions of their predecessors; they did not differ from the _legal_ doctrines laid down by them, but were not very well satisfied on the point of discretion and policy.”
“The term legal monopoly is avoided because the means used are often illegal or non-legal.”
“Instead, the version of the agreement that emerged contained the phrase "legal force"—a broader term that is seen as offering governments more leeway to identify how to curb emissions.”
The Wall Street Journal: China, India, U.S. Take Steps Toward Emissions Deal
“It is important to consider how interpretation, as characterised in subsection 2.2 above, fits into the discussion of the ambit of the term legal reasoning in the opening section of this entry.”
“Article 4, Section 2, (the third paragraph,) the term "legally" was struck out; and the words, "under the laws thereof," inserted after the word "State," in compliance with the wish of some who thought the term legal equivocal, and favoring the idea that SLAVERY was”
“Other countries want to include the phrase "legal outcome," language rejected by EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard as too vague.”
“But the EU objected to the late addition of the phrase "legal outcome," which it said would allow countries to wriggle out of commitments.”
“It appears to me that the phrase legal translates into a DRM ridden file that is only partially complete, or at best a good sample of what your actually looking for.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘legal’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Society
social work, coverage, affiliate, social security, ambulance, clinic, health, insurance, emergency, mail, letter, envelope and 101 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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EU Buzz - 100 most active collocation...
The 100 most frequent constituents of EU collocations. People working for the EU are able to complete any of these words to a multiple-word expression with ease. Try it out if you are one! For a gr...
accession, acquis, act, action, agenda, agreement, aid, area, assistance, association, base, budget and 88 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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words of collect
A Heidegger Collection - a log of logues
leech, lectern, lection, lecture, legend, legible, legion, lesson, coil, collect, diligent, elect and 123 more...
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Place Names Of Distinction
These are all names of real places. The focus is on towns, mountains, rivers etc. but I will consider streets. Streets are even wackier so if there's enough good'uns ... yep, another list :-)
malino, yoshkar-ola, cae onan, krakatoa, gulfoss, perusia, camooweal, manangatang, utopia, bastardo, condom, zumstein and 324 more...
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punnything's Words
existentialist, configure, numismatist, autumnal, desist, ennui, taciturn, vacillate, naivete, bloodletting, tete-a-tete, concentric and 274 more...
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actions
ritual, communion, baptism, wedding, funeral, cremation, burial, sacrifice, election, interview, meeting, dating and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for legal.
bilby A town in Alberta, Canada. Dec 31, 2007