UNLAWFULNESS Synonyms: 55 Similar and Opposite Words

unlawfulness

noun

Definition of unlawfulness

as in illegality

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of unlawfulness 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for unlawfulness

Noun

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

Definition of 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

The violence and torture that took place in detention centers were also gendered, as women suffered abuses different from those to which men were subjected.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 July 2026
However, their mission proves more than challenging as Trask employs Reavers, a fleet of overpowered militia that abduct and abuse mutants.

— Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 23 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

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unlawful

unlawfulness

unlay

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Style

“Unlawfulness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unlawfulness. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of unlawfulness

noun

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