In the English language, there are lots of synonyms and antonyms for a single word. But, the terms ‘Legal’ and ‘illegal’ are antonyms of each other. Both terms are established by official law or authorities. In this article, I will show the difference between legal and illegal. Stay here!
What does legal mean?
The term “legal” means something is acceptable or allowed by law. The legal things are fully authorized by jurisprudence (philosophy of law). The terms: legal access, legal advice, legal affairs, legal assets, legal heirs, and legal migration are common adjectives.
Examples:
- Sophia applied to legal heirs.
- Oliver has many legal problems
- As a judge, you had no legal status.
- I don’t like playing with the legal authorities.
- The legal driving age in my state is 16 years old.
- Everything was quite legal as well as taxes were paid.
- For legal purposes, you should visit the Bureau Of Legal Advice.
What does illegal mean?
The term “Illegal” is the opposite, and it means “not legal” that is prohibited by law. The official law and rules consider criminal activities strictly forbidden. Illegal things are unauthorized by jurisprudence (philosophy of law). In short, illegal means against the law.
Examples:
- I think your company is illegal.
- It is illegal to steal money from a store.
- Now women’s harassment in the workplace is illegal.
- Everyone in the assembly protested against the illegal act.
- if you involve in illegal activities, strict action will be taken.
Legal vs illegal
There is a lot of misunderstanding about the difference between legal and illegal. In general, when something is legal, it is allowed by law. Illegal, on the other hand, means that something is not allowed by law.
English has different ways of making something opposite. Usually, the letters “non” or “un” indicates the same thing as “no,” but “i” plus another letter sometimes shows the opposite of a word. Here are some examples:
- Literate (able to read); illiterate (not able to read).
- Written (an adjective that says something was written down); unwritten (an adjective that says something was not written).
Similarly, legal and illegal are opposite of each other.
check: Grammar vs Grammer
Summary
Legal and illegal are entirely different things with different meanings. They can’t use synonyms for one another. After learning each term, it’s simple enough to know the difference. All legal action, migration, immigration, businesses, import, and export are allowed by law or official authorities. But any kind of illegal activity is not allowed by law.