adjective
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illegal
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illicit; immoral
unlawful love
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an archaic word for illegitimate
Related Words
See illegal.
Other Word Forms
- unlawfully adverb
- unlawfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of unlawful
First recorded in 1250–1300, unlawful is from the Middle English word unlaweful. See un- 1, lawful
Compare meaning
How does unlawful compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the note seen by the BBC, Altman said any OpenAI contracts for defence would also reject uses that were "unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons".
From BBC
The complaint said Glover also called police regarding the incident and had falsely identified Doe as “an unlawful intruder.”
From Los Angeles Times
Neil Allen, an independent barrister, told the BBC it was "very unusual" for an adult with full mental capacity to be moved to a residential home against their will as it was "totally unlawful".
From BBC
Amongst the issues the tribunal is being asked to decide upon are damages, and whether the BBC was also a victim of unlawful interferences of journalistic material.
From BBC
The company said it has paid duties — imposed by tariffs that have been ruled unlawful — on “numerous” entries of imported goods.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
