lawful

English

Alternative forms

• lawfull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English laweful, equivalent to law +‎ -ful, conflated with Middle English leful, leeful, leveful (“according to law, lawful, pertaining to law”). See also leveful.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːfʊl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːfʊl

Adjective

lawful (comparative more lawful, superlative most lawful)

1. (law) Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.

   Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation.

   Synonyms: just, legal, legitimate, licit

   Antonyms: nonlawful, unlawful

2. Operating according to some law or fundamental principle.
   • 1776, Jeremy Bentham, “A Short Review of the Declaration”, in John Lind, An Anſwer to the Declaration of the American Congress‎^[1], London: Thomas Cadell, page 121:

     Or would they have it believed, that there is in their ſelves ſome ſuperior ſanctity, ſome peculiar privilege, by which theſe things are lawful to them, which are unlawful to all the world beſides?

   • 2014, George Ortega, Free Will: Its Refutation, Societal Cost and Role in Climate Change Denial:

     […] so that the person's actions are merely the inevitable product of lawful causes stemming from prior events […]

Related terms

• lawfully
• lawfulness

Translations

conforming to or recognised by law or rules

• Arabic: قانوني‎ (ar) (qānūniyy)
• Bulgarian: законен (bg) (zakonen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 合法的 (zh) (héfǎ de)

• Dutch: wettig (nl), rechtmatig (nl)
• Finnish: lainmukainen (fi), laillinen (fi)
• French: légal (fr)
• German: gesetzlich (de), legal (de), rechtsmäßig
• Hungarian: törvényes (hu), törvényszerű (hu)
• Icelandic: löglegur (is)
• Irish: dleathach
• Japanese: 合法な (ja) (ごうほうな, gōhō na)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can

• Latin: lēgitimus (la)
• Latvian: likumīgs
• Luxembourgish: gesetzlech
• Middle English: laweful
• Old English: ǣwlīċ
• Polish: prawowierny (pl), prawomierny, prawomocny (pl), legalny (pl)
• Portuguese: legal (pt), legalizado (pt)
• Romanian: legal (ro) m
• Russian: зако́нный (ru) (zakónnyj), лега́льный (ru) (legálʹnyj), правоме́рный (ru) (pravomérnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: dligheach
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swahili: halali (sw)
• Swedish: laglig (sv), berättigad (sv), rättmätig (sv)
• Turkish: yasal (tr)

operating according to some law or fundamental principle

• Finnish: oikeutettu (fi)

Noun

lawful (plural lawfuls)

1. (role-playing games) A character having a lawful alignment.

Anagrams

• awfull

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Middle English

Adjective

lawful

1. Alternative form of laweful