illegal – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of illegal

Adjective: illegal

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Perifrastic

Comparativemore illegal
Superlativemost illegal

Sample Sentences

  • This is illegal, you know!
  • Nearly 40 million people live in UK areas with illegal air pollution
  • Their illegal mining operations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, are protected by officials and police paid to look the other way – and powerful customers in the construction industry who prefer not to ask too many questions.
  • In all times the Princes in England have done ſomething illegal to get Money: But then came a Parliament and all was well, the People and the Prince kiſt and were Friends, and ſo things were quiet for a while. [a. 1654, John Selden, “Money”, in Table-Talk, 3rd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1716, page 74:]
  • Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting. [2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2022, page 30:]
  • Major parties have long relied on large-scale campaign contributions, and the LDP was only recently mired in an illegal fundraising scandal. Sanseito drew its support from smaller, individual donations. [2025 July 24, Ned Temko, “In Japan, too, voters want their country to be ‘great again’”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 27 Jul 2025:]
  • It's illegal to go over 70mph on any British road, so why should drivers have cars that can? [2026 February 18, Dickon Ross, “No need for speed”, in RAIL, number 1055, page 3:]
  • Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.
  • The computer program performed an illegal operation and was terminated.
  • illegal immigrant
  • illegal logger
  • illegal pilot

Adjectives inflected like illegal

shining, zealous, nervous, complex, uncertain, important, conceited, behind, illegal, honest, dangerous,

Etymology

Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping of illegal alien or illegal immigrant. See: French Adjectives 'illégal'.