illegitimate enterprise
noun
Simple meaning
An illegal enterprise carried on for profit.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihlihjituhmihtehnterpryzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪlɪˈdʒɪtəmɪˈtɛntɚpɹaɪz
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.
noun
An illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: An illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit
Used this way, illegitimate enterprise is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist 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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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.