lawful

comparative more lawful · superlative most lawful · alternative obsolete lawfull

1. lawConforming 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.

   2 more examples

   The laws are controversial. Forcing someone to work during a lawful strike is a major step. It was always likely to inflame a situation, and so it proved with LNER. ASLEF's counter-tactic came as a five-day walkout, which would have been the longest stoppage for many years had LNER not withdrawn its plan.

   2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Railway's fragile resilience”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 3

   [Pete] Hegseth demanded full and unrestricted access to all Anthropic’s AI models for every lawful purpose.

   2026 March 1, Ed Pilkington, “US military reportedly used Claude in Iran strikes despite Trump’s ban”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: just, legal, legitimate, licit · Antonyms: nonlawful, unlawful, illicit, crimeful, criminal, illegal, illegitimate, illicit

2. Operating according to some law or fundamental principle.

   […] so that the person's actions are merely the inevitable product of lawful causes stemming from prior events […]

   2014, George Ortega, Free Will: Its Refutation, Societal Cost and Role in Climate Change Denial

   1 more example

   Or would they have it believed, that there is in their ſelves ſome ſuperior ſanctity, ſome peculiar privilege, by which theſe things are lawful to them, which are unlawful to all the world beſides?

   1776, Jeremy Bentham, “A Short Review of the Declaration”, in John Lind, An Anſwer to the Declaration of the American Congress, London: Thomas Cadell, page 121

3. roleplaying gamesOf a character: having an alignment which makes them tend to follow the laws and conventions of society.

plural lawfuls · alternative obsolete lawfull

1. roleplaying gamesA character having a lawful alignment.