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illegal

il·le·gal/ɪˈli.ɡəl/adjective, noun

illegal is spelled I-L-L-E-G-A-L, 3 syllables: il·le·gal. The wrong spelling people search most is illigal: about 110 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 18 of all searches for the word. Illegal is an adjective meaning “Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law”.

How many letters and syllables are in illegal?

Letters7: I-L-L-E-G-A-L
Syllables3: il·le·gal
In writing48 times per million words; the 2,113th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, illigal, about 110 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell illegal?

Illegal is spelled I-L-L-E-G-A-L. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for illegal in either form.

illegalthe right spelling1,820 searches a month
illigali in place of e110 searches a month
illeagleg and a swapped, an extra e40 searches a month
illiegalan extra i20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is illegal?

Illegal appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce illegal?

  • UK /ɪˈliːɡəl/
  • US /ɪˈli.ɡəl/
  • US [ɪɫˈli.ɡəɫ]

Illegal has 3 syllables, split il·le·gal in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-illegal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with illegal?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as illegal from its last stressed vowel (/iɡəl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of illegal

  • more illegal comparative
  • most illegal superlative
  • illegals plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does illegal mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

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

    This is illegal, you know!

  2. 2

    Forbidden by established rules.

    Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.

  3. 3

    Totally fictitious, and often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country.

  4. 4

    offensiveBeing or doing something illegally.

    illegal immigrant

  5. 5

    USoffensiveBeing an illegal immigrant; residing in a country illegally.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteAn illegal act or technique.

  2. 2

    colloquialContraband, esp. illegal substances such as drugs.

  3. 3

    colloquialoffensiveEllipsis of illegal immigrant.

  4. 4

    A spy operating abroad illegally and under non-official cover, without visible ties to his or her country’s authorities.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate illegal?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of illegal: IUU.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Illegal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchillégal (contrary to or forbidden by law), interdit, défendu (prohibited by established rules), espion infiltré, agent clandestin (undercover spy)
Germanillegal, rechtswidrig (contrary to or forbidden by law)
Portugueseilegal (contrary to or forbidden by law), proibido (prohibited by established rules)
Spanishilegal (contrary to or forbidden by law), espía encubierto, topo (undercover spy)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does illegal come from?

Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping of illegal alien or illegal immigrant.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after illegal