lawful
adjective
Simple meaning
Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lawfuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɔfəl
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
law
Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.
roleplaying games
Of a character: having an alignment which makes them tend to follow the laws and conventions of society.
Operating according to some law or fundamental principle.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.
Used this way, lawful 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.
More ways to use lawful
- “Lawful methods of dissent.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In a manner acceptable to common custom.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: conforming to
Antonyms
Sense: conforming to
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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.