illegal
adjective
Simple meaning
Prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihleeguhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈliɡəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules
Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.
Forbidden by established rules.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules
Used this way, illegal is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Not in accordance with the law.
Contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law.
Guilty of breaking the law.
Not approved by law, but not invalid.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Not legible.
In an illegal manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Possession of controlled substances.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.