legalize
/ˈliːɡəlaɪz/
legalize verb: to make legal or permit under law. Either by decriminalising something that has been illegal or by specifically permitting it.
Verb
legalize (third-person singular simple present legalizes, present participle legalizing, simple past and past participle legalized)
- To make legal or permit under law. Either by decriminalising something that has been illegal or by specifically permitting it.
- There is a debate whether or not to legalize some of the softer drugs.
- This is true despite the fact that in 1986, the federal government legalized the cashability of RRSP annuities.1987, Dian Cohen, Money, page 155
- Synonyms:
- legitimate
legalize meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
legalize in Tamil
- சட்டப்படி செல்ல வைத்தல், சட்டப்படி செல்லுபடியாக்கு, சட்டமாக்கு, முறைமை உடையதாக்கு
legalize in Bengali
- বৈধ করা
legalize in Malayalam
- legitimize, make legal, decriminalize
- നിയമാനുസൃതമാക്കുക, നിയമസാധുത്വം നല്കുക, നിയമവിധേയ മാക്കുക, പ്രമാണീകരിക്കുക, അനുമതി നല്കുക, അനുമതിക്കുക
legalize in Kannada
- ಕಟ್ಟಲೆಯಾಗಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
- legalize in Arabic
- قَنَّنَ qannana
- legalize in Indonesian
- mengesahkan, melegalkan, melegalisasi
- legalize in Vietnamese
- hợp pháp hoá, luật hoá
Examples of legalize in a sentence
- The new legislature passed a resolution retroactively legalizing the actions of the revolutionaries that brought them to power.
- "Consanguinamory," is Shy's term for incestuous relationships, which she says should be legalized and recognized as "marriage."
- Some married American citizens to legalize their stay, while others paid for “green card” marriages.
Synonyms of legalize
Antonyms
Forms of legalize
| third-person singular present | legalizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | legalizing |
| past participle | legalized |
| past | legalized |
| alternative UK | legalise |
Origin of legalize
From legal + -ize. Piecewise doublet of loyalize.
Words formed from legalize
Questions about legalize
- What does legalize mean?
- Legalize means to make legal or permit under law. Either by decriminalising something that has been illegal or by specifically permitting it.
- What is legalize in Tamil?
- Legalize in Tamil is சட்டப்படி செல்ல வைத்தல், சட்டப்படி செல்லுபடியாக்கு, சட்டமாக்கு. See Legalize meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is legalize?
- Legalize is a verb.
- How do you pronounce legalize?
- Legalize is pronounced /ˈliːɡəlaɪz/.
- What is the past tense of legalize?
- The past tense of legalize is legalized.
Words near legalize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: legalize (page history and authors); legalize (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); legalize (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); legalize (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); legalize (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-legalize.wav.
Cite this entry: “legalize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/legalize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.