Legal
adjectivePermitted by or relating to the law.
How to spell legal
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce legal
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does legal mean?
- adjectivePermitted by or relating to the law.
Legal in a sentence
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The company sought legal advice before signing the contract.
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It is perfectly legal to record a call you are part of in this state.
Where does legal come from?
Language of origin: Latin
Legal comes from the Latin legalis, meaning 'relating to the law', which was built on lex (genitive legis), the ordinary Latin word for 'law' or 'a formal rule'. English took it in through Old French and Anglo-Norman during the late Middle Ages, settling into its modern form by the 1400s. The same lex root gave us a whole family of legal-sounding relatives, including 'legislate', 'legitimate', 'privilege' (literally a 'private law'), and 'loyal', which travelled a more roundabout French route from the same source. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the soft -gal ending simply echoing the Latin -galis. Because the root is law itself, it is worth remembering that 'legal' and the heavier 'legitimate' are cousins under the skin.
How the word is built
- leg- (from Latin lex, legis: law)
- -al (adjective suffix: relating to)
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