ILLEGALITY Synonyms: 55 Similar and Opposite Words

illegality

noun

as in criminality

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Recent Examples of illegality As a result, the decision was 6–3 on the illegality of the executive order, but only 5–4 on the constitutional question. — Amy Davidson Sorkin, New Yorker, 30 June 2026 The Justice Manual violations described above represent only one dimension of the illegality of this Fund. — Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 26 June 2026 Federal illegality further cripples operations with banking and tax burdens. — Peter Su, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026 And the blurred line between guanxi and outright illegality bred widespread graft. — Reagan Yip, CNN Money, 3 June 2026 While lower prices are welcome news for consumers, cannabis businesses have had difficulty making money due to high financing and operating costs, and an inability to take normal business tax deductions due to the drug’s illegality under federal law. — Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune, 16 Feb. 2026 Speaking out in that way is not illegality. — ABC News, 18 Jan. 2026 Many of the administration’s actions rely on broad claims of illegality without providing specific violations. — Spencer Overton, The Conversation, 16 Jan. 2026 My uncles and cousins, all city or federal police officers, did not use political party affiliation as a basis for determining legality versus illegality. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 13 Jan. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegality

Noun

These programs are laudable, certainly beneficial for some people, but overall are of limited effect even in reducing recidivism, let alone dealing with the conditions that generate criminality in the first place.

— Ronald J. Allen, Chicago Tribune, 19 July 2026
The administration says the best way to stop such abuses and criminality is to disincentivize immigrant children from coming in the first place.

— Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, 6 July 2026

Definition of criminality

Noun

But in a court-martial, a service member who argues that an order is unlawful has the burden of proving its unlawfulness.

— Joshua Kastenberg, The Conversation, 16 Dec. 2025
Many people at Harvard and elsewhere feared that the university would reach a deal with the Administration before Judge Burroughs’s decision, because that would have meant that no court would declare the unlawfulness of the Administration’s actions toward academic institutions.

— Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2025

Definition of unlawfulness

Noun

Formerly incarcerated people with disabilities, chronic mental health or substance abuse issues and those who are older tend to be at higher risk for post-incarceration homelessness, Western said.

— Amber Gaudet July 18, Charlotte Observer, 18 July 2026
That honest job has, across four generations, fed prime ministers and paupers, cooked for the King and Queen, and quietly funded a one-man legal aid service for survivors of abuse.

— Afdhel Aziz, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026

Definition of abuse

Noun

But its ferocity led right-wing broadcasters and influencers to start talking about a new kind of urban lawlessness enabled by liberal social policies.

— Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 10 July 2026
Our founders did not envision a nation with an open border and lawlessness.

— Scott Singer, Sun Sentinel, 9 July 2026

Definition of lawlessness

Noun

Dozens of police officers, many of them recent recruits, were eventually disciplined for actions related to police corruption, and many were convicted of crimes related to stealing drugs from traffickers.

— Meg Anderson, NPR, 23 July 2026
Zelenskyy recently weathered a politically damaging corruption investigation involving several of his closest associates, including his former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who was dismissed amid mounting public pressure.

— ABC News, ABC News, 23 July 2026

Definition of corruption

Noun

This kind of depravity, licentiousness and polemical theatrics has no place on such a traditional and once wholesome presentation of the coming of a new year in our great nation and especially on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the greatest experiment in democracy and freedom in history.

— Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 4 Jan. 2026
This kind of depravity, licentiousness and polemical theatrics has no place on such a traditional and once-wholesome presentation of the coming of a new year, especially on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the greatest experiment in democracy and freedom in history.

— Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 3 Jan. 2026

Definition of licentiousness

Noun

Independents said the worst thing about Republicans was their loyalty to Trump (10%), perceptions of corruption and self-enrichment (8%), dishonesty, hypocrisy or immorality (7%), a lack of concern for ordinary people or cruelty (6%), and ineffective and weak or unqualified leadership (5%).

— Emily Guskin, ABC News, 27 May 2026
That immorality takes on many forms across all aspects of society.

— Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Oc Register, 5 May 2026

Definition of immorality

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“Illegality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegality. Accessed 24 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of illegality

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