Illicit

//ɪˈlɪsɪt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A banned or unlawful item.

    "A large number of studies, however, have reported that it is rare for the user of 'hard' drugs not to have initiated cannabis use prior to the other illicits."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not approved by law, but not invalid.

    "The bigamous marriage, while illicit, was not invalid."

  2. 2
    Breaking social norms.

    "I only can properly enjoy carol services if I am having an illicit affair with someone in the congregation."

  3. 3
    Unlawful.

    "Ayşe Erkoç learned long ago that the secret of doing anything illicit in Istanbul is to do it in full public gaze in the clear light of day. No one ever questions the legitimacy of the blatant."

Adjective
  1. 1
    contrary to or forbidden by law wordnet
  2. 2
    contrary to accepted morality (especially sexual morality) or convention wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
unlawfulcriminalillegalillegitimateoutlawedprohibited

Example

More examples

"Over the last decade, Estonia has reported that heroin has largely been replaced by fentanyl on the illicit market."

Etymology

Borrowed from French illicite, from Latin illicitus, from in- (“not”) + licitus (“allowed, permitted”), from licet (“it is allowed”). By surface analysis, il- + licit.

Related phrases

illicit darkness

More for "illicit"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.