Unlawful

adj

adj ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

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

    "He was charged with unlawful use of a car."

Adjective
  1. 1
    contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law wordnet
  2. 2
    contrary to or forbidden by law wordnet
  3. 3
    having no legally established claim wordnet
  4. 4
    not morally right or permissible wordnet
  5. 5
    not conforming to legality, moral law, or social convention wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
illegitimateillicitlawlessoutlawedwrongfulillegal

Example

More examples

"I'm telling you for certain! That man's the worst of the worst! As he's the cream of the crime crop, you shouldn't be surprised that he's notorious for murder and unlawful subjugation."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

unlawful deathunlawful detainerunlawful non-citizencivil lawcriminal law

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