legal
Plurallegals (some meanings)
- 1Connected with the law or with lawyers.
He spent years building a reputation in the legal profession.
The newspaper consulted its legal team before publishing the story.
UsageMostly before a noun: legal advice, legal action, the legal profession.
Note
Here the word sorts things by subject: a legal profession, a legal team, a legal question. It says which field something belongs to, not whether it is allowed. A legal dispute may well be about something unlawful, and that keeps this use apart from the "permitted by law" meaning.
- 2Allowed, required, or established by law, or recognized by the law as distinct from custom or morality.
Recreational fishing is legal here only during certain months.
The committee confirmed that the new procedure was entirely legal.
UsageCommon patterns: it is legal to fish here, legal for adults. The opposite is illegal.
Note
Permission is only part of what this sense covers, because the law can also impose. When The Economist wrote in 2013 that legal segregation is a distant memory, it meant segregation the law required, not segregation it merely tolerated. Read the noun closely: a legal requirement binds you, while a legal activity simply leaves you free to do it.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The Economist published the quoted wording in 2013, in “Waking life.” campusweb.franklinpierce.edu
- The wording “legal segregation is a distant memory” accurately reproduces part of the article's sentence. campusweb.franklinpierce.edu
- The historical reference is to segregation imposed by law; this interpretation fits the article's discussion of repealing racist laws. nps.gov
- 3Old enough to meet a minimum age set by law, such as the drinking age or the age of consent.
Most of the freshmen weren't legal yet, so the party stayed dry.
Once she turned legal, she could order a drink with dinner.
UsageIt can sound crude, so keep it out of careful writing about young people.
Oppositeunderage
Note
This is the word turned on a person's age, and it usually appears after a verb: she's legal, is he even legal? Asked about someone's partner, it can blur the two ages, as in Sandra Brown's Low Pressure (2012), where it doubles as an accusation of chasing a girl too young to buy beer.
Less common meanings
- 4Allowed by the rules or syntax of a formal system, such as a board game or a programming language.
The referee ruled that the substitution was legal under tournament rules.
A compiler will reject any statement that is not legal in the language.
UsageCommon in legal move in games and legal program or statement in computing.
Similarvalid, allowed, permissible, legitimate
Note
In this sense the rule book stands in for the law, whether it governs a board game or a machine. Legal here means well formed, not correct. John V. Guttag's Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python observes that each legal program has exactly one meaning, though that meaning need not be the one its author wanted.
- 5The department within a company or other organization that handles legal matters, such as contracts and disputes.
Marketing wants to launch tomorrow, but legal still has concerns about the wording.
She emailed legal to check whether the giveaway broke any rules.
UsageNo the and often a capital: run it past Legal, Legal says no. In formal writing, say the legal department.
- 6Paper cut to sheets measuring 8½ by 14 inches (215.9 by 355.6 mm).
Does this printer take legal, or only letter?
We ran out of legal, so the brief came out on letter-size sheets.
UsageTo count it, say sheets of legal or sheets of legal-size paper, as you would for letter.
Note
A North American paper size, used in the US and Canada, where it stands bare beside letter: print it on legal, we're out of legal.
- 7Of paper or a similar item: of the long size called legal, 8½ by 14 inches in the US and Canada, or 8½ by 13 inches in the Philippines.
The architect's schedules were printed on legal sheets for the extra width.
The contract was printed on legal paper, so it stuck out of the letter-size folders on her desk.
UsageUsually in legal-size or legal paper. For readers abroad, give the measurements too.
Note
A name for a paper format, and one whose measurements depend on the country. In the United States and Canada it means the long sheet of 8½ by 14 inches, as in legal paper and legal-size folder. In the Philippines the same name means a shorter sheet, 8½ by 13 inches.
- 8Of a place: allowing the use or sale of cannabis under the law.
Tourists often visit legal states just to buy cannabis without worry.
Once the territory went legal, dispensaries opened within months.
UsageMost often in legal state, or after go: the state went legal.
Note
The word cannabis goes unspoken here, and context has to supply it. The usual home of this sense is the phrase legal state. That phrase can sit right beside a contradiction: Tracy Ferrell's Migrating for Medical Marijuana (2019) notes that the drug remains federally illegal even in a legal state. Legal in this sense describes a place's own rules, not every law that applies there.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Tracy Ferrell wrote Migrating for Medical Marijuana, published in 2019. experts.colorado.edu
- Ferrell's book notes that marijuana remains federally illegal even in a legal state. en.wiktionary.org
- State permission to use cannabis does not establish legality under every applicable law. cannabis.maryland.gov
- 9A person who immigrated through lawful channels.
My grandfather waited years for his papers, and he always made a point of saying he was a legal, not someone who had sneaked across.
The debate often pits legals against those who entered without papers.
UsageSounds blunt and casual, especially beside illegals; measured writing says lawful immigrants.
Oppositeillegal, undocumented
Note
This noun belongs to American political talk, usually in contrast with its opposites, illegal and undocumented. Of the two, illegal echoes it more exactly, and undocumented is the softer word. Don't confuse it with the embassy spy, who is also a legal.
- 10A spy who is officially attached to and apparently employed by an embassy, military post, or similar institution.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
English took it from Latin lēgālis ("legal"), which is based on lēx ("law"). Loyal and leal are its doublets.