Word.ws English Dictionary

illicit

/ɪˈlɪsɪt/

illicit adjective: not approved by law, but not invalid.

Adjective

illicit (comparative more illicit, superlative most illicit)

  1. Not approved by law, but not invalid.
    • The bigamous marriage, while illicit, was not invalid.
    • Such migrants may violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do then they are trespassers, not criminals.2008 January 8, Madeleine Albright, Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership, New York: HarperCollins, →ISBN, →OL, page 225
  2. Breaking social norms.
    • I only can properly enjoy carol services if I am having an illicit affair with someone in the congregation.1993, Alan Clark, Diaries: In Power 1983-1992, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN, →OL
  3. Unlawful.
    • Ayşe Erkoç learned long ago that the secret of doing anything illicit in Istanbul is to do it in full public gaze in the clear light of day. No one ever questions the legitimacy of the blatant.2010 July 29, Ian McDonald, The Dervish House, →ISBN, →OL

Noun

illicit (plural illicits)

  1. A banned or unlawful item.
    • A large number of studies, however, have reported that it is rare for the user of 'hard' drugs not to have initiated cannabis use prior to the other illicits.2011, Shane Darke, The Life of the Heroin User: Typical Beginnings, Trajectories and Outcomes

illicit meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

illicit in Hindi

lacking licitness
अवैध avaidh
unlawful
अवैध avaidh

illicit in Tamil

கள்ளத்தனமான, சட்டவிலக்கான, சட்டவிளக்கான, தவறான, விதிமுறைக்கு மாறான

illicit in Marathi

illicit, improper, or not in accordance with accepted moral or social norms
अवैध avaidh

illicit in Urdu

غیرقانونی, خلاف قانون, ممنوع, ناجائز
More languagesFewer languages
illicit in Bengali
অবৈধ, আইনত নিষিদ্ধ
illicit in Malayalam
നിയമവിരുദ്ധമായ, വ്യാജമായ, നിയമമനുവദിക്കാത്ത, നിയമസാധുതയില്ലാത്ത
illicit in Kannada
ನಿಷಿದ್ಧ, ನ್ಯಾಯವಿರುದ್ಧ, ಅಕ್ರಮ, ನ್ಯಾಯಬಾಹಿರ

Examples of illicit in a sentence

  • Organized crime is largely responsible for the nation’s illicit drug trafficking.
  • It was believed on all hands that the two of them were having an illicit affair.
  • Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab.

All 20 example sentences with illicit

Synonyms of illicit

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of illicit

Forms of illicit

Adjective
comparativemore illicit
superlativemost illicit
Noun
pluralillicits

Origin of illicit

Borrowed from French illicite, from Latin illicitus, from in- (“not”) + licitus (“allowed, permitted”), from licet (“it is allowed”). By surface analysis, il- + licit.

Words formed from illicit

Words that rhyme with illicit

Questions about illicit

What does illicit mean?
Illicit means not approved by law, but not invalid.
What is illicit in Hindi?
Illicit in Hindi is अवैध (avaidh). See Illicit meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is illicit?
Illicit can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce illicit?
Illicit is pronounced /ɪˈlɪsɪt/.

Words near illicit in the dictionary

  1. illibertarian
  2. illiberties
  3. illiberty
  4. illicia
  5. illiciaceous
  6. illicit
  7. illicitly
  8. illicitness
  9. illicitous
  10. illicits
  11. illicium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: illicit (page history and authors); illicit (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अवैध (Marathi) (page history and authors); illicit (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); illicit (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); illicit (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); illicit (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “illicit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/illicit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.