Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use lawful in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective, noun

Lawful means conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society. Example: “Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation.”

Examples of lawful by meaning

adjectiveConforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.

  • Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation.
  • Forcing someone to work during a lawful strike is a major step.2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Railway's fragile resilience”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 3

More sentences with lawful

  • There are certain states where it is lawful to execute prisoners convicted of certain crimes.From the entry execute
  • Good’s car began lurching toward him — the sort of police shooting investigators consider “awful but lawful.”2026 February 7, Ernesto Londoño, “Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop.”, in The New York…. From the entry awful but lawful
  • For example, consider the “lawful but awful” shootings plaguing black communities across the country.2020 June 23, Tahir Duckett, “The Hidden Constitutional Costs of the Carceral System”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 23…. From the entry lawful but awful
  • In most places, open carry is relatively uncommon compared to lawful concealed carry.2018, Nicholas J. Johnson, David B. Kopel, George A. Mocsary, Michael P. O'Shea, Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation…. From the entry open carry
  • Kadara's "badlands" offer unsupervised access to unwitting test subjects free from any lawful or ethical constraints.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Location of Experiment. From the entry unwitting
  • The animal slaughtered without reciting Basmalah is halal (lawful) provided it is an omission by mistake.2009, Qazi Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, The Islamic Concept Of Animal Slaughter: احكام الذبيحة من المنظور الاسلامي [انكليزي] ترجمة, Dar Al Kotob…. From the entry basmalah
  • The art of holding attention by all lawful means is prime, as to style.1920, The Lutheran Companion - Volume 28, page 599. From the entry eyemark
  • The incident caused a public outcry among the South Asian community after a coroner ruled his death was “a lawful killing.”2023 January 27, Hillary Leung, “NGO raises questions over ‘racial and cultural insensitivity’ as Filipino man shot by Hong Kong police…. From the entry Ho Man Tin
  • It is, however, an additional step removed—and therefore seemintly more contrived—to imagine Macbeth as "chaotic neutral," "neutral evil," or "lawful neutral."2001, Daniel Mackay, “Interface Design: The Machinery Manufacturing the Ghost in the Machine”, in The Fantasy Role-playing Game: A New…. From the entry chaotic
  • No proceedings in respect of unbecoming conduct shall be taken in respect of the lawful political opinions or activities of any bishop, priest or deacon.2003, General Synod of the Church of England, “Section 8(3)”, in Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, page 4. From the entry unbecoming
  • A recent author maintains that it is lawful for a man to marry a djinnia, but not for a woman to be married to a djinn.1975, Abdelwanab Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, page 69. From the entry jinnia
  • The fact that a steel-rollered machine, so long as it remains steel-rollered, did not infringe and was capable of lawful use as a complete machine in that state was irrelevant.2013, Paul Torremans, Holyoak and Torremans Intellectual Property Law, page 157. From the entry rollered
  • No manufacture of heroine is lawful in the United States of America, but it is permitted in some countries under the same conditions as for other narcotics under international control.1952, Bulletin on Narcotics, volumes 4-6, page 27. From the entry heroine

Meaning of lawful

  1. adjective Conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.
  2. adjective Operating according to some law or fundamental principle.
  3. adjective Of a character: having an alignment which makes them tend to follow the laws and conventions of society.

Full definition of lawful

Questions about lawful in a sentence

How do you use lawful in a sentence?
Lawful is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Lawful money is always a land asset and can only be issued by an actual land jurisdiction government — not a corporation.”
What is a short sentence with lawful?
“Forcing someone to work during a lawful strike is a major step.”
What does lawful mean?
Lawful means conforming to, or recognised by the laws of society.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lawful (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 lawful in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/lawful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.