Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use illegal in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Illegal means contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law. Example: “This is illegal, you know!”

Examples of illegal by meaning

adjectiveContrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.

  • 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.

adjectiveForbidden by established rules.

  • Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.
  • The computer program performed an illegal operation and was terminated.

nounContraband, esp. illegal substances such as drugs.

  • You’re carrying illegals.2008, J. D. Robb [pseudonym; Nora Roberts], Strangers in Death, Penguin, →ISBN

More sentences with illegal

  • Unfair discrimination between the able-bodied and the disabled is illegal in many places.From the entry able-bodied
  • According to international treaties, it is illegal to execute prisoners of war.From the entry execute
  • It is illegal to hunt hawks or other raptors in many parts of the world.From the entry hawk
  • The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling.From the entry source
  • We must always make a distinction that right versus wrong is different from legal and illegal.From the entry distinction
  • In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to fire a person for blowing the whistle on an employer.From the entry blow the whistle
  • Dang, I’m handcuffed by these regulations. I’d like to help but it’d be illegal.From the entry handcuff
  • He imports Cuban cigars to the United States, which is illegal but profitable.From the entry imports
  • The sawed-off shotgun was illegal because its shorter barrel made it too easy to conceal.From the entry sawed-off
  • A detective asking you to buy illegal marijuana for a dying man would be police entrapment.From the entry entrapment
  • This program works correctly on all well-formed formulas but it blows up on illegal input.From the entry well-formed formula
  • The "just say no" advertising campaign was mostly ineffective demarketing of illegal drugs.From the entry demarketing
  • The illegal pressure has forced hundreds of workers to unaffiliate from their unions.From the entry unaffiliate
  • Before executing Charles I, the Rump made it illegal to proclaim anyone else king to replace him.From the entry rump
  • The newly-appointed border czar is expected to heavily curtail illegal immigration.From the entry border czar
  • I used to spend my Sundays playing pinball despite it being de jure illegal under an unenforced bylaw.From the entry de jure
  • David was arrested for illegal possession of firearms.From the entry firearm
  • There has been a significant growth in illegal arrivals.From the entry arrival
  • The telecom companies were accused of having formed an illegal combine in order to hike up the network charges.From the entry combine
  • The law makes drunk driving illegal per se.From the entry per se
  • It exists in a grey area between legal and illegal.From the entry grey area
  • Firstly, that's illegal; secondly, it has serious disadvantages; thirdly, it's not necessary; and lastly, did I mention that it's illegal?From the entry lastly
  • Even if it's not illegal, plagiarism is usually frowned upon.From the entry plagiarism
  • An illegal house-search is both a grave violation of privacy and potential grounds to dismiss any evidence that is found.From the entry house-search
  • Illegal drugs are not prescribable by doctors.From the entry prescribable
  • The possession of burglarous tools is illegal in many jurisdictions.From the entry burglarous
  • Ask her to deport all illegals living in this town without a green card or the appropriate documents that prove their naturalized citizenship.From the entry deport
  • He did the crime and will go to jail - the fact that he did not know it was illegal does not enter into it.From the entry enter into
  • Dogfighting is illegal in most countries.From the entry dogfighting
  • The forfeitability of the claimant’s vehicle was likely due to the fact that she, the claimant, had sold illegal narcotics from the vehicle on three separate occasions.From the entry forfeitability
  • The possession and use of all fireworks, including safe and sane, are illegal in Nevada County.2026 June 28, Jeremiah Martinez, “Northern California communities that allow, prohibit use of fireworks”, in KCRA. From the entry Nevada County
  • ERIC was formed to help states maintain accurate voter rolls and spot illegal voting.2023 December 12, Michael Greibrok, Kristi Stahr, “THE GREAT EXIT: Why States are Leaving Politically Driven ERIC and Why More States…. From the entry eric
  • Illegal weed tended to be more expensive where antiweed enforcement was more vigorous.2022, Robin S. Goldstein, Daniel A. Sumner, Can Legal Weed Win?, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 22. From the entry antiweed
  • Unlike steroids, these supposedly illegal substances were not used in secret.2021 June 15, Jesse Campigotto, “Baseball has a sticky situation on its hands”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2023. From the entry flamethrower

Meaning of illegal

  1. adjective Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.
  2. adjective Forbidden by established rules.
  3. adjective Totally fictitious, and often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country.

Full definition of illegal

Questions about illegal in a sentence

How do you use illegal in a sentence?
Illegal is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “This is illegal, you know!”
What is a short sentence with illegal?
“You’re carrying illegals.”
What does illegal mean?
Illegal means contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: illegal (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use illegal in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/illegal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.