unlawful

English

Etymology

From Middle English unlawful; equivalent to un- +‎ lawful.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɔːfʊl

Adjective

unlawful (comparative more unlawful, superlative most unlawful)

1. (law) Prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal)

   Synonym: wrongful

   He was charged with unlawful use of a car.

   • 2022 September 26, “Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden”, in Mark Trevelyan, editor, Reuters‎, archived from the original on 26 September 2022, Europe:

     That year a U.S. appeals court found the program Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.

Derived terms

• unlawful death
• unlawful detainer
• unlawful non-citizen

Translations

prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law)

Afrikaans: onwettig Arabic: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: незаконен (bg) (nezakonen) Chinese: Mandarin: 非法的 (fēifǎ de), 違法的 / 违法的 (wéifǎ de), 不合法的 (bùhéfǎ de) Crimean Tatar: qanunsız Danish: ulovlig (da), lovstridig, illegal (da) Dutch: verboden (nl), illegaal (nl), onwettig (nl), wederrechtelijk (nl) Finnish: laiton (fi), lainvastainen (fi) French: illégal (fr) Galician: ilegal (gl) Georgian: არაკანონიერი (araḳanonieri), კანონსაწინააღმდეგო (ḳanonsac̣inaaɣmdego), უკანონო (uḳanono) German: gesetzeswidrig (de), gesetzwidrig (de), ungesetzlich (de), illegal (de) Greek: Ancient: παράνομος (paránomos) Hungarian: jogsértő (hu), jogellenes (hu), jogtalan (hu), jogszabályellenes, törvénysértő (hu), törvényellenes (hu), törvénytelen (hu), illegális (hu), tiltott (hu), törvénybe ütköző, jogszerűtlen (hu) Irish: aindílis, neamhdhleathach, neamhdhlisteanach Latin: illicitus Norwegian: rettsstridig Bokmål: ulovlig (no) Nynorsk: ulovleg Polish: nielegalny (pl) m, niedozwolony (pl) m, bezprawny (pl) m Russian: незако́нный (ru) (nezakónnyj), нелега́льный (ru) (nelegálʹnyj), неправоме́рный (ru) (nepravomérnyj) Spanish: ilegal (es) Swedish: olaglig (sv) Welsh: anghyfreithiol (cy)