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legal capacity

American  
[leeg-uhl-kuh-pas-i-tee] / ˈlig əl kəˈpæs ɪ ti /

noun

  • legal capacities
    plural
  1. the legal ability that a person has under the law to assume or occupy a particular role or relationship or to undertake a particular action.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The court ruled that lack of legal capacity is not the same as lack of "valid consent" for the purposes of Article 5 of the Human Rights Act.

From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026

What legal capacity does your brother have to make decisions for himself — everything from hiring a new lawyer to revoking a POA?

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026

Our state has chronically underfunded public guardianship services for people who both lack legal capacity to and cannot afford to pay a guardian, and the lay guardianship system is confusing and overwhelming for families.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 7, 2022

The lockup has held an average of 2,199 detainees each month over the last year, roughly 240 people fewer than the facility’s legal capacity, county officials said.

From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2021

When the Birmingham jails filled up beyond legal capacity, the school buses delivered the arrested children to the Birmingham fairgrounds—the grounds where Kiddieland was located.

From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry

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