Standard Lemma guide

legality

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Canada, General-American: /liˈɡælɪti/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ælɪti
  • CMU ARPABET: L IY0 G AE1 L AH0 T IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Lawfulness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: legalness, illegality, illegalness, unlawfulness, lawlessness, unlaw

2

noun

Meaning 2

A dice game; the same as chuck-a-luck.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

lawfulness by virtue of conformity to a legal statute

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: illegality

Broader terms: lawfulness

Narrower terms: validity, validness

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-der.? Proto-Indo-European *legh-der.? Proto-Italic *lēks Latin lex Proto-Indo-European *h2el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin lēgālislbor. English legal Proto-Indo-European *-teh2 Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh2ts Latin -itāsder. Old French -itebor. Middle English -ite English -ity English legality From legal + -ity.

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: قَانُونِيَّة (qānūniyya) — lawfulness
  • Arabic: مَشْرُوعِيَّة (mašrūʕiyya) — lawfulness
  • Belarusian: зако́ннасць (zakónnascʹ) — lawfulness
  • Belarusian: лега́льнасць (ljehálʹnascʹ) — lawfulness
  • Bulgarian: законност (zakonnost) — lawfulness
  • Bulgarian: легалност (legalnost) — lawfulness
  • Catalan: legalitat — lawfulness
  • Dutch: wettigheid — lawfulness
  • Finnish: laillisuus — lawfulness
  • French: légalité — lawfulness
  • German: Legalität — lawfulness
  • German: Rechtmäßigkeit — lawfulness
  • Greek: νομιμότητα (nomimótita) — lawfulness
  • Hungarian: törvényesség — lawfulness
  • Hungarian: törvényszerűség — lawfulness
  • Hungarian: jogszerűség — lawfulness
  • Italian: legalità — lawfulness
  • Latvian: likumīgums — lawfulness
  • Latvian: likumība — lawfulness
  • Norwegian Bokmål: lovlighet — lawfulness
  • Polish: legalność — lawfulness
  • Polish: prawność — lawfulness
  • Portuguese: legalidade — lawfulness
  • Romanian: legalitate — lawfulness
  • Russian: зако́нность (zakónnostʹ) — lawfulness
  • Russian: лега́льность (legálʹnostʹ) — lawfulness
  • Spanish: legalidad — lawfulness
  • Swahili: uhalali — lawfulness
  • Telugu: చట్టబద్ధత (caṭṭabaddhata) — lawfulness
  • Ukrainian: зако́нність (zakónnistʹ) — lawfulness
  • Ukrainian: лега́льність (lehálʹnistʹ) — lawfulness
  • Welsh: cyfreithlondeb — lawfulness