Word.ws English Dictionary

semilegal

semilegal adjective: of partial or questionable legality.

Adjective

semilegal (not comparable)

  1. Of partial or questionable legality.
    • "Landlords are buying these buildings knowing that they can use illegal and semilegal means to push out the low-paying tenants," said Mr. Dulchin, whose group supports the bill backed by Ms. Quinn.2007 December 24, Manny Fernandez, “Dueling Bills in the Fight Over Housing”, in New York Times

Origin of semilegal

From semi- + legal. Piecewise doublet of semiloyal.

Words formed from semilegal

Questions about semilegal

What does semilegal mean?
Semilegal means of partial or questionable legality.
What part of speech is semilegal?
Semilegal is an adjective.

Words near semilegal in the dictionary

  1. semilatent
  2. semilateral
  3. semilattice
  4. semilattices
  5. semileafless
  6. semilegal
  7. semilegally
  8. semilegendary
  9. semilegible
  10. semilegislative
  11. semilegitimacy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: semilegal (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: “semilegal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/semilegal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.