legal

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis (“legal”), from lēx (“law”). Doublet of loyal and leal.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.ɡəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈli.ɡəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɡəl
• Hyphenation: le‧gal

legal (comparative more legal, superlative most legal)

1. Relating to the law or to lawyers.

   Coordinate term: equitable

   legal profession

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 19 September 2020, page 55:

     According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

2. Having its basis in the law.

   legal precedent

3. Being established, permitted, required or prescribed by law.

   Synonyms: lawful, legitimate, licit; see also Thesaurus:lawful

   Antonyms: banned, contraband, disallowed, forbidden, illegal, outlawed, unlawful; black-market, back-alley

   legal motion

   • 1992 December 17, Michael Granberry, “Vanishing Act: Animals: A world without the homely rhino? […]”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[2], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 July 2025:

     In South Africa, it’s still legal to “trophy hunt” the white rhino, which [Anna] Merz and others find reprehensible.

   • 2013 August 23, “Waking life”, in The Economist‎^[3], volume 408, number 8850, archived from the original on 10 March 2023:

     After 50 years, legal segregation is a distant memory, and race in America is not the unbridgeable chasm it once was. The country has a black president. The sort of comity that King evoked, in which the descendants of slaves and of slave owners “sit down together at the table of brotherhood”, can be found in many places, including the Deep South. The rate of marriage between blacks and whites is rising.

4. Following the rules or syntax of a system, such as a game or a programming language.

   If you have no legal move, but are not in check the game is a draw.

   • 2021, John V. Guttag, Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python, Third Edition, page 7:

     Programming languages are designed so that each legal program has exactly one meaning

5. (informal) Above the age of consent or the legal drinking age.

   Synonym: underage

   • 2012 September 18, Sandra Brown, Low Pressure, Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN:

     "Is she even legal? Shame on you, diddlin' a girl too young to buy beer. You being a church deacon and all." If looks could kill, Dale would be dead.

   • 2024 April 18, Ayin Quijano, Bottoms Up, Boracay (Season 2 Amihan), Ayin Quijano:

     "Is she even legal? She looks like a minor." Elias whispers back, "Of course. I checked her passport. She's 20. What do you take me for? Be nice. I like her." I immediately smile at the girl behind Elias, […]

6. Permitting the use and/or sale of cannabis; in which cannabis is lawful.
   • 2016 January 30, Jasper Stohner, 101 Money Making Methods in the Marijuana Madness Movement of 2016, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 45:

     Whether you're interested in opening a retail marijuana store in a legal state or if you're interested in investing in someone or a company, which is operating in a legal state, there are […]

   • 2019 September 13, Tracy Ferrell, Migrating for Medical Marijuana: Pioneers in a New Frontier of Treatment, McFarland, →ISBN, page 160:

     [Because] marijuana is still a federally illegal drug, using the drug in a child's presence, even in a legal state, could thus be construed as child abuse.

7. (Canada, US) Of paper or document layouts, measuring 8+¹⁄₂ × 14 inches (216 × 356 mm).
8. (Philippines) Of paper or document layouts, measuring 8+¹⁄₂ × 13 inches (216 × 330 mm).

   Synonyms: government legal, (UK) foolscap

legal (countable and uncountable, plural legals)

1. (uncountable, informal) The legal department of a company or organization.

   Legal wants this in writing.

2. (countable) A spy who is attached to, and ostensibly employed by, an embassy, military outpost, etc.
3. (countable, informal, US) One who immigrated lawfully.

   Antonyms: illegal, undocumented

4. (uncountable, Canada, US) A paper sheet or document measuring 8+¹⁄₂ × 14 inches (216 × 356 mm).

• Galle, egall

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis. Compare the inherited doublet lleial.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ləˈɣal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [leˈɣal]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

legal m or f (masculine and feminine plural legals)

1. legal

   Antonym: il·legal

• “legal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “legal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “legal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “legal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Spanish legal.

legál

1. legal

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis (“legal”), from lēx (“law”).

• IPA^(key): /leɡaːl/, [leˈɡ̊æːˀl]

legal

1. legal (something that conforms to or is according to law)

   Synonym: lovlig

   Antonym: illegal

2. legitimate (conforming to accepted rules)

   Synonym: legitim

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis. Compare leal.

• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: le‧gal

legal m or f (plural legais)

1. legal (having its basis in the law)

   Antonym: ilegal

• lícito

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis (“legal”), from lēx (“law”).

• IPA^(key): [leːˈɡaːl]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

legal (strong nominative masculine singular legaler, not comparable)

1. legal

   Antonym: illegal

• “legal” in Duden online
• “legal” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Learned borrowing from Dutch legaal (“legal”), from French légal, from Latin lēgālis. Doublet of loyal.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛɡal/ [ˈlɛ.ɡal]
• Rhymes: -ɛɡal
• Syllabification: le‧gal

legal (comparative lebih legal, superlative paling legal)

1. legal, allowed or prescribed by law

• “legal”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis (“legal”), from lēx (“law”). Doublet of leal.

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: le‧gal

legal m or f (plural legais, comparable, comparative mais legal, superlative o mais legal or legalíssimo, diminutive legalzinho, augmentative legalzão)

1. legal

   Synonym: lícito

   Antonym: ilegal

2. (Brazil, colloquial) cool, nice, good

   Synonym: (Portugal) fixe

   Antonym: chato

   • 2015, Carlos Maltz, O último rei do rock, Belas-Letras, →ISBN, page 157:

     Hoje em dia pegam um mané qualquer que seja bonitinho, colocam nele um nome qualquer de qualquer artista do passado que ninguém mais se lembra quem é, um nome que tenha uma sonoridade legal, tipo Tony Curtis (o original era Curtis), tascam um repertório popinho estudado minuciosamente em função das preferências de um determinado público em cima do cara, faturam bilhões e depois de uns cinco ou seis anos sucateiam o mané que já tá podre de rico, inchado de tanta bomba e droga, e arrumam outro.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “legal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French légal, Latin legalis. By surface analysis, lege +‎ -al. Doublet of loial.

• IPA^(key): /leˈɡal/

• Audio:

  (file)

legal m or n (feminine singular legală, masculine plural legali, feminine/neuter plural legale)

1. legal, lawful

   Synonym: licit

   Antonyms: ilegal, ilicit

• legalitate
• legitim

Learned borrowing from Latin lēgālis, from lēx (“law”). Doublet of leal.

• IPA^(key): /leˈɡal/ [leˈɣ̞al]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: le‧gal

legal m or f (masculine and feminine plural legales)

1. legal

   Antonym: ilegal

   • 2025 July 23, Priscilla Alvarez, “El Gobierno de Trump toma medidas para acelerar la deportación de menores migrantes y les ofrece opción de "autodeportarse"”, in CNN en Español‎^[4]:

     “Esta es una práctica de larga data que usaron administraciones anteriores para priorizar el regreso de los niños a la seguridad de un padre o tutor legal en su país de origen. […] CNN reportó previamente que niños migrantes estaban regresando a la custodia del gobierno debido a acciones contra sus llamados patrocinadores, que los servicios legales ofrecidos a los menores se recortaron y que los niños estaban siendo puestos en calendarios judiciales acelerados para agilizar las deportaciones.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. statutory

   Synonyms: estatutario, reglamentario

3. lawful
4. (colloquial) legit

   Synonym: legítimo

• “legal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Learned borrowing from Latin legalis.

legal (not comparable)

1. legal

• illegal
• legalitet
• legitim

• ligal — superseded, pre-2014

Borrowed from Spanish legal, from Latin lēgālis. Doublet of leal.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /leˈɡal/ [lɛˈɣal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: le‧gal

legál (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜒᜄᜎ᜔)

1. legal

• “legal”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
• “legal”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018

Borrowed from French légal, from Latin lēgālis.

• IPA^(key): /leˈɡal/

legal

1. legal (being allowed or prescribed by law)

   Synonym: yasal

   Antonyms: illegal, yasa dışı