lawful
/ˈlɔfl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.62 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.
adj
Operating according to some law or fundamental principle.
Example Sentences
- "Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation."
- "The laws are controversial. Forcing someone to work during a lawful strike is a major step. It was always likely to inflame a situation, and so it proved with LNER. ASLEF's counter-tactic came as a five-day walkout, which would have been the longest stoppage for many years had LNER not withdrawn its plan."
- "[Pete] Hegseth demanded full and unrestricted access to all Anthropic’s AI models for every lawful purpose."
- "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?"
- "[…] so that the person's actions are merely the inevitable product of lawful causes stemming from prior events […]"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɔfl̩/
- British English: /ˈlɔːfl̩/
Inflected Forms
more lawful (comparative)
most lawful (superlative)
lawfull (alternative, obsolete)
lawfuls (plural)