legal
- permitted by law; lawful: Such acts are not legal.
- of or relating to law; connected with the law or its administration: the legal profession.
- appointed, established, or authorized by law; deriving authority from law.
- recognized by law rather than by equity.
- of, relating to, or characteristic of the profession of law or of lawyers: a legal mind.
- Theology.
- of or relating to the Mosaic Law.
- of or relating to the doctrine that salvation is gained by good works rather than through free grace.
- a person who acts in a legal manner or with legal authority.
- an alien who has entered a country legally.
- a person whose status is protected by law.
- a fish or game animal, within specified size or weight limitations, that the law allows to be caught and kept during an appropriate season.
- a foreigner who conducts espionage against a host country while working there in a legitimate capacity, often in the diplomatic service.
- legals, authorized investments that may be made by fiduciaries, as savings banks or trustees.
Origin of legal
Synonyms for legal
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comlegal dictionary
- a specialized dictionary covering terms used in the various branches of the legal profession, as civil law, criminal law, and corporate law. A comprehensive legal dictionary adds to its body of standard English entries many words and phrases that have made their way into modern legal practice from law French and Latin and are rarely found in a general English monolingual dictionary. Such a specialized dictionary is useful not only for law students and for attorneys themselves, but for members of the lay public who require legal services. Legal dictionaries published in print follow the normal practice of sorting entry terms alphabetically, while electronic dictionaries, such as the online Dictionary of Law on Dictionary.com, allow direct, immediate access to a search term.
Related Words for legal
fair, constitutional, statutory, valid, legitimate, lawful, proper, juridical, contractual, acknowledged, authorized, clean, due, enforced, forensic, granted, innocent, judicial, just, justifiableExamples from the Web for legal
Contemporary Examples of legal
What if there were a legal dispute between the foreign investor and his or her Egyptian partners or collaborators?
However, legal issues are only one of the things standing between an ex-prisoner and a job.
Disagreements will focus on right and wrong, not parsing of legal language.
The legal jungle must be bulldozed, and replaced by radically simpler framework of goals and principles.
What you see is a massive, well-intentioned, legal junk pile.
Historical Examples of legal
But moral conviction and legal proof are quite different things.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
By this measure all legal proceedings for the recovery of church rates were abolished.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
He dealt with the question on theological, legal and social grounds.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
There is a legal limit to physical cruelty; and there are also human limits to it.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
The eight children do not belong to the woman in any real or legal sense.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
legal
- established by or founded upon law; lawful
- of or relating to law
- recognized, enforceable, or having a remedy at law rather than in equity
- relating to or characteristic of the profession of law
Word Origin for legal
Word Origin and History for legal
mid-15c. "of or pertaining to the law," from Middle French légal or directly from Latin legalis "legal, pertaining to the law," from lex (genitive legis) "law," possibly related to legere "to gather," on notion of "a collection of rules" (see lecture (n.)).
Sense of "permitted by law" is from 1640s. Related: Legally. The Old French form was leial, loial (see leal, loyal). Legal tender is from 1740.