as in legitimacy
the quality or state of being legal
the senator questioned the legality of the proposed surveillance operation
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Recent Examples of legality
In Fraenkel’s account, an authoritarian system can preserve a normative state—courts, procedures, legality—while simultaneously constructing a prerogative state that overrides or circumvents those constraints in the name of necessity, emergency, or national survival.
—
Alejandro Reyes, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2026
In the wake of the bond-hearing decision, lawyers have taken to filing habeas corpus petitions, which question the legality of their clients’ detention, and federal judges are largely siding with them and freeing their clients, The New York Times reported Sunday.
—Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2026
Yet, over a dozen states are moving forward with their own explorations of legality — like treatment for heroin patients or veterans only — or funding research through clinical trials, according to the advocacy group Americans for Ibogaine.
—Logan Smith, CBS News, 2 Feb. 2026
But so is finding ways to push the rules as far as possible whilst maintaining legality.
—Luke Smith, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for legality
Alejandro Reyes, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2026
In the wake of the bond-hearing decision, lawyers have taken to filing habeas corpus petitions, which question the legality of their clients’ detention, and federal judges are largely siding with them and freeing their clients, The New York Times reported Sunday.
—Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2026
Yet, over a dozen states are moving forward with their own explorations of legality — like treatment for heroin patients or veterans only — or funding research through clinical trials, according to the advocacy group Americans for Ibogaine.
—Logan Smith, CBS News, 2 Feb. 2026
But so is finding ways to push the rules as far as possible whilst maintaining legality.
—Luke Smith, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for legality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for legality
legitimacy
Noun
-
The case rendered the law temporarily moribund, a discredited artifact whose future use would require a complete rehabilitation of its legitimacy.—
Evandro Cruz Silva,
The Dial,
10 Feb. 2026
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Conversations around reparations in the United States are not new, nor are conversations about the legitimacy of Puerto Rico being its own country, separate of American influence and control.—
Taylor Crumpton,
Time,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Legality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/legality. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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