Lawful

Definitions: Lawful

Lawful

Adjective

1. Conformable to or allowed by law; "lawful methods of dissent".

2. According to custom or rule or natural law.

3. Having a legally established claim; "the legitimate heir"; "the true and lawful king".

4. Authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law; "a legitimate government".

Date "lawful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Satire	LAWFUL, adj. Compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Lawful

Synonyms: legitimate (adj), licit (adj), orderly (adj), rightful(a) (adj), rule-governed (adj), true(a) (adj). (additional references)

Antonym: unlawful (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Dueness	Allowable; (permitted); lawful, licit, legitimate, legal; legalized; (law).
Legality	Adjective: legal, legitimate; according to law; vested, constitutional, chartered, legalized; lawful; (permitted); statutable, statutory; legislatorial, legislative; regulatory, regulated.
Permission	Adjective: permitting; Verb: permissive, indulgent; permitted; Verb: patent, chartered, permissible, allowable, lawful, legitimate, legal; legalized; (law); licit; unforbid, unforbidden; unconditional.
Right	Legitimate, justifiable, rightful; as it should be, as it ought to be; lawful; (permitted), (legal).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Now it's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same. (True Grit; writing credit: Charles Portis; Marguerite Roberts) I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! (A Man for All Seasons; writing credit: Robert Bolt)
Movie/TV Titles	Lawful Larceny (1930) Scandal: Lawful Entry (2000)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Conducting the Lawful Employment Interview: How to Avoid Charges of Discrimination When Interviewing Job Candidates (reference) Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam (reference) Lawful Exit: The Limits of Freedom for Help in Dying (reference) Lawful Orders: A Novel (reference) Lawful Possession [LARGE PRINT] (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Anton Chekhov	Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.
Hermann Busenbaum	When the end is lawful, the means are also lawful.
Joseph Conrad	All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.
Miguel De Cervantes	The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
Magna Carta	1215	No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. (reference)
John Locke	1690	And this is that, and that only, which did, or could give beginning to any lawful government in the world. (Second Treatise of Government)
Treaty of Versailles	1919	Second.�The right of association for all lawful purposes by the employed as well as by the employers. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	It is lawful to look upon misfortune like a betrayer for the sake of relieving it.
King Richard III	Shakespeare, William	O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		To do this he/she must present title to the land. It is extremely important to ensure that the land was purchased according to Polish law from the lawful owner of the property. (references)
		In addition, information will be provided to water services institutions, consumers, and the public to enable them to monitor the performance of water services institutions, for research purposes, and for any other lawful reason. (references)
Civil Liberties	El Salvador	The Constitution provides for peaceful assembly for any lawful purpose, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. (references)
	Peru	According to labor advocates, groups were able to express their opinions publicly, while the National Police generally maintained order in a lawful manner. (references)
	Taiwan	In 1999 the LY abolished the Publications Law, which had empowered the police to seize or ban printed material that was seditious, treasonous, sacrilegious, interfered with the lawful exercise of public functions, or violated public order or morals. (references)
Economic History	Andorra	Lawful residents in Andorra may obtain citizenship after 25 years of residency. (references)
	Hong Kong	Foreign investors are generally allowed to engage in all lawful forms of remunerative activity. (references)
	Namibia	It announced that investment rights acquired through the South African Government following termination of the mandate of 1966 would not be protected against the claims of a future, lawful government in the territory. (references)
Human Rights	Panama	The authorities may not enter private residences except with the owner's permission, or by written order from the appropriate authority for specific purposes, such as entry to assist the victims of crime or disaster, or to conduct lawful health and safety inspections. (references)
Political Economy	RUSSIA	The law goes on to state, however, that Federal law may provide for a number of exceptions, including where necessary for "the protection of the constitution, public morals and health, and the rights and lawful interest of other persons and the defense of the state." The potential large number of exceptions thus gives considerable discretion to the Russian government. (references)
Women	Malaysia	Nonetheless, Shari'a generally (each state has a separate code) prohibits wives from disobeying the lawful orders of their husbands. (references)
Worker Rights	Macau	The Government claimed that since the workers' contracts had expired, their removal was lawful. (references)
	Malaysia	The act prohibits employers from taking retribution against a worker for participating in the lawful activities of a trade union. (references)
	Sierra Leone	No laws prohibit retaliation against strikers, even for a lawful strike; however, the Government did not take adverse action against the employees and paid some of them back wages. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	We have done them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms.
William H. Taft	1909-1913	The proposition is usually linked with one to make the secondary boycott lawful.
Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Lawful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Lawful" is used about 507 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	507	11,929

Expressions using "lawful": by lawful means ♦ child born in lawful wedlock ♦ his lawful wife ♦ Lawful age ♦ lawful authorization ♦ lawful children ♦ lawful heir ♦ lawful husband ♦ lawful marriage ♦ lawful money ♦ lawful son ♦ lawful wife. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "lawful": non-lawful.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "lawful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		ligjor, legal (legal), i ligjshëm (forensic, judicial, legal, true). (various references)

Arabic		‏قانوني (fair, jural, jurist, juristic, legal, legist, legitimate, licit, rightful, statutory, valid), ‏شرعي (de jure, judicial, judiciary, legal, legitimate, prima facie, rightful, true, valid). (various references)

Bulgarian		справедлив (candid, equitable, even, even handed, fair, just, legitimate, right, righteous), основателен (legitimate, righteous, solid, warrantable, well founded, well grounded), законен (allowable, jural, legal, legitimate, licit, sound, vested, warrantable). (various references)

Chinese		合法 (legal, legitimate). (various references)

Czech		legální (legal, legitimate, licit), zákonitý (legal, rightful), pravoplatný (rightful), právoplatný (valid). (various references)

Danish		lovligt registrerede oplysninger (lawful data), lovlig opholdsperiode (period of lawful residence), lovlig krigshandling (lawful act of war). (various references)

Dutch		wettige handeling (lawful action), wettelijke verblijfsduur (period of lawful residence), wettelijke verblijfduur (period of lawful residence), wettelijk toelaatbaar onderzoek (lawful inquiry), wettelijk toegestane toegang tot encryptiesleutels (lawful access to encryption keys), wettelijk geoorloofde handeling (lawful action), wettelijk bezit (lawful possession), rechtmatige daad (lawful action), onrechtmatig verblijvende vreemdeling (foreign national not in a lawful position), machtiging (authorization, franchise, lawful authorization, licence), illegaal (foreign national not in a lawful position, illegal, illegal immigrants, unlawful), hoofdelijk aandeel (lawful share of succession), geoorloofde oorlogshandeling (lawful act of war), buitenlander zonder verblijfsstatus (foreign national not in a lawful position). (various references)

Farsi		مجاز (Admissible, Admissibll, Allowable, Free, Licensable, Permissive), مشروع (Legal, Legitimate, Loyal, Rightful), قانونی (Canonical, Juridical, Legal, Legitimate, Standard, Statutory, Valid), حلال (Kosher, Resolvent, Solvent), روا (Admissible, Admissibll, Free, Permissive), داتاءی , بربستی . (various references)

Finnish		luvallinen (allowed, permissible), lakimääräinen (fixed by law, legal), laillinen (legal, legitimate, valid). (various references)

French		licite, légitime, légal. (various references)

German		rechtmäßig (allowable, lawfully, legal, legally, legitimate, rightful, rightfully, sound), gesetzlich (by law, lawfully, legal, legally, legitimate, legitimately, licit, statutorily, statutory). (various references)

Greek		νόμιμοσ (legal, legitimate, licit, rightful), νομότυποσ. (various references)

Hebrew		מותר (abundance, allowed, licit, loose, pemitted, permissible, remainder, remnant, superfluity, superiority, surplus), משפטי (forensic, judicial, juridical, legal, statutory), חוקי (legal, legit, legitimate, licit). (various references)

Hungarian		törvényes (juridical, legal, legitimate, licit, rightful, statutory, to take legal measures). (various references)

Indonesian		sah (legal, legitimate, rightful), halal (kosher, rightful). (various references)

Italian		legittimo (just, legal, legitimate, perfect, righteous, rightful, unobjectionable), legale (attorney at law, honest, institutional, judicial, judiciary, jurisprudential, lawyer, legal, legally, solicitor). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		正�" (due, equitable, just, justifiable, legitimate, proper, reasonable, right), 合法的 (in order, legal, legitimate, low-abiding), 合法 (legal, legality). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		せいとう (conquest, correct answer, due, due east, equitable, just, justifiable, legitimate, meticulous, orthodox, political party, porcelain manufacturing, proper, reasonable, refined sugar, right, subjugation, sugar manufacture, sugar refining, traditional), �"うほうてき (in order, legal, legitimate, low-abiding), �"うほう (armful, fate, frank, gradational salary, inevitable retribution, karma effects, largehearted, legal, legality, signal gun, unaffected). (various references)

Korean		합법. (various references)

Manx		rere yn leigh (according to law, legal), lowal (allow, allow permit, allowable, justify, legitimate), leighoil (legal, legislative, legitimate). (various references)

Norwegian		lovlig (legal), rettsmessig. (various references)

Pig Latin		awfullay

Portuguese		legítimo (apparent, authentic, fit, honest, just, legal, legitimate, rightful, true born, warrantable, wedded), legal (bang up, cool, enactment, honest, juridical capacity, juristical, jurists, legal, legitimate, licit, nice, rightful, statutory), lícito (legal, licit, permissible), tribunal (bar, bench, court, courtroom, divan bed, tribunal). (various references)

Romanian		legiuit (just), legitim (justified, legal, legitimate, right, rightful), legal (jural, juridical, juristic, juristical, just, justifiable, lawfully, legal, legally, legitimate, licit, rightful, sound). (various references)

Russian		законный (judicial, juridical, justifiable, legal, legitimate, licit, recognized, rightful, true, vested, warrantable). (various references)

Scottish		laghail. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		zakonit (legal, legitimate, rightful). (various references)

Spanish		legal (honest, legal), lícito (legal, licit), de procedencia legal. (various references)

Swedish		laglig (legal, legitimate, licit, sound). (various references)

Thai		ซึ่งถูกต้องตามกฎหมาย. (various references)

Turkish		yasal (clean, competent, de jure, juridical, juristic, juristical, legal, legit, legitimate, licit, right, rightful, solemn, sound, statutory, technical, valid), meşru (legit, legitimate, licit, statutory), kanuni (lawgiver, lawmaker, legal, statutory), adil (equitable, even handed, fair, fair-minded, impartial, just, righteous, right-minded, scrupulous). (various references)

Ukranian		законний (allowable, juristic, juristical, justiciary, legal, legitimate, licit, nomothetic, recognized, rightful, true, vested). (various references)

Vietnamese		hợp pháp (legal, licit), đúng luật chính thống. (various references)

Welsh		deddfol (legal), cyfreithlon (legal, legitimate). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	canonicus, fas, iusta, iustae, iustam, iustaque, iustas, iusti, iustior, iustiorem, iustis, iusto, iustorum, iustos, iustum, iustus, legitima, legitimam, legitime, legitimis, legitimum, legitimus, legitiums, liceat, licebat, licent, licentia, licet, licitum, licitus. (various references)
Classical Hebrew	200 BCE-Modern	kasher. (various references)
Avestan	200-600	rathwya. (various references)
Old English	450-1100	gecynde. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Luke Chapter 20, Verse 22
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Exestin hmin kaisari foron dounai h ou
Latin	405	Vulgate	Licet nobis dare tributum Caesari an non
Old English	990	West Saxon	Ys hit riht þæt man þam casere gafol sylle þe na;
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Is it leueful to vs to yyue tribute to the emperoure, or nay?
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	Ys it laufull for vs to geve Cesar tribute or no?
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Cesar, or not?
Basic English	1964	Ogden	Is it right for us to make payment of taxes to Caesar or not?
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Luke Chapter 20, Verse 22
Bulgarian	право ли е за нас да даваме данък на Кесаря, или не?
Cebuano	Uyon ba sa balaod ang pagbayad namog buhis kang Cesar, o dili ba?"
Chinese	我們納稅給該 �'' 、可以不可以。
Croatian	Je li nam dopušteno dati porez caru ili nije?"
Danish	Er det os tilladt at give Kejseren Skat eller ej?"
Dutch	Is het ons geoorloofd den keizer schatting te geven, of niet?
Finnish	Onko meidän lupa antaa keisarille veroa vai eikö?"
French	Nous est-il permis, ou non, de payer le tribut � César?
German	Ist's recht, daß wir dem Kaiser den Schoß geben, oder nicht?
Haitian Creole	Manyè di nou: Eske lalwa nou an pèmèt nou peye Seza lajan kontribisyon an, wi ou non?
Hungarian	Szabad-é nékünk adót fizetnünk a császárnak, vagy nem?
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Karena itu coba Bapak katakan kepada kami, menurut peraturan agama kita, bolehkah membayar pajak kepada Kaisar atau tidak?"
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Patutkah kami membayar uang upeti kepada Kaisar atau tiada?"
Italian	E' lecito che noi paghiamo il tributo a Cesare?».
Korean	우 리 가 가 이 사 에 게 세 를 �" 치 �" 것 이 가 하 니 이 까 ? 불 가 하 니 이 까 ?' 하 니
Latvian	Vai mums atïauts maksât nodokïus íeizaram, vai nç?
Maori	He mea tika ranei te hoatu takoha e matou ki a Hiha, kahore ranei?
Modern Greek	ειναι συγκεχωρημενον εις ημας να δωσωμεν φορον εις τον Καισαρα η ουχι;
Norwegian	er det oss tillatt å gi keiseren skatt, eller ikke?
Portuguese	é-nos lícito dar tributo a César, ou não?
Rumanian	Se cuvine sq plqtim bir Cezarului sau nu?``
Russian	� ПЪЧПМЙФЕМШОП МЙ ОБН �"БЧБФШ � П�"БФШ ЛЕУБТА, ЙМЙ ОЕФ?
Shuar	Wats turuttia, ¿Rúmanmaya uunt akupin ii kuitri akiktin pénkerkait? ¿Akiktinkiait? ¿Suritkiatniukait? Nu nekaatai tusar wakeraji" tiarmiayi.
Spanish	¿Nos es lícito dar tributo al César, o no?
Swahili	Basi, twambie kama ni halali, au la, kulipa kodi kwa Kaisari!"
Swedish	+
Thai	การที่จะส่งส่วยให้แก่ซีซาร์นั้นถูกต้องตามพระราชบัญญัติหรือไม่"
Ukrainian	Чи годиться давати податок для кесаря, чи ні?
Uma	Jadi', toe pai' kiperapi' bona nu'uli' -kakai Guru: ntuku' atura agama-ta, ba ma'ala moto-ta mpobayari paja' hi Kaisar, ba uma-di?"
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "lawful": lawfully, lawfulness, lawfulnesses. (additional references)
	Words ending with "lawful": unlawful. (additional references)
	Words containing "lawful": unlawfully, unlawfulness, unlawfulnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Lawful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Lawfeldt, lawfyl, legful, pawful, sawful, Ulanfu. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "lawful" (pronounced lô"ful)
5	l ô" f u l	unlawful.
3	-f u l	apocryphal, artful, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, boastful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, deceitful, delightful, disdainful, disgraceful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doleful, doubtful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, eventful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fateful, fearful, fistful, fitful, flavorful, forceful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, grateful, harmful, hateful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, hurtful, insightful, joyful, kerfuffle, lustful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mistrustful, mournful, muffle, needful, neglectful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, regretful, remorseful, resentful, reshuffle, resourceful, respectful, restful, riffle, rifle, rightful, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, sorrowful, soulful, spiteful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tactful, tasteful, tearful, thankful, thoughtful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, uneventful, unfaithful, ungrateful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, wasteful, watchful, willful, wishful, wistful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful, zestful.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-f-l-l-u-w"
	-1 letter: awful.
	-2 letters: fall, flaw, full, wall, waul.
	-3 letters: all, awl, flu, law.
	-4 letters: al, aw, fa, la.
	Words containing the letters "a-f-l-l-u-w"
	+1 letter: awfully, wailful.
	+2 letters: awfuller, lawfully, unlawful.
	+3 letters: awfullest, wailfully, wakefully.
	+4 letters: lawfulness, unlawfully, wastefully, watchfully, wearifully, wrathfully.
	+5 letters: cauliflower.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4C 61 77 66 75 6C

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

.-.. .- .--. ..-. ..- .-..

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001100 01100001 01110111 01100110 01110101 01101100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#76 &#97 &#119 &#102 &#117 &#108

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004C 0061 0077 0066 0075 006C

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day
drug lawful	11
lawful	9
clamp drug lawful	9
lawful permanent resident	2
entry lawful	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Lawful

Definitions: Lawful

Lawful

Adjective

Specialty Definitions: Lawful

Synonyms: Lawful

Synonyms within Context: Lawful

Dueness

Legality

Permission

Right

Crosswords: Lawful

Modern Usage: Lawful

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Lawful

Books

Familiar Quotations: Lawful

Anton Chekhov

Hermann Busenbaum

Joseph Conrad

Miguel De Cervantes

Historic Usage: Lawful

Magna Carta

John Locke

Treaty of Versailles

Use in Literature: Lawful

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

King Richard III

Shakespeare, William

Non-Fiction Usage: Lawful

Speeches: Lawful

Thomas Jefferson

William H. Taft

Harry S. Truman

Usage Frequency: Lawful

Expression: Lawful

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Lawful

drug lawful

lawful

clamp drug lawful

lawful permanent resident

entry lawful

Modern Translations: Lawful

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Norwegian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Ukranian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Ancestral Language Translations: Lawful