Liceity
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The legitimacy of an act or its consequences, by opposition to the validity. uncountable, usually
"Validity affects the act, while liceity affects the 'legality' of the act. So if a baptism is invalid, then the baptism never occurred (i.e. one has not been baptized and needs to be baptized). So if a baptism is illicit, then it was not celebrated under the structures that the Catholic Church has defined (i.e. one has been baptized, but the Sacrament was not celebrated in a way directed/authorized by the Church or with the full approval of the Church)."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Validity affects the act, while liceity affects the 'legality' of the act. So if a baptism is invalid, then the baptism never occurred (i.e. one has not been baptized and needs to be baptized). So if a baptism is illicit, then it was not celebrated under the structures that the Catholic Church has defined (i.e. one has been baptized, but the Sacrament was not celebrated in a way directed/authorized by the Church or with the full approval of the Church)."
Etymology
From Latin licere.
More for "liceity"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.