semilegality

9.5

A situation where an action is partly allowed by law or unclear under the law

noun
/ˌsɛmɪlɪˈɡæləti/

: semilegalidad

The company's operations exist in a zone of semilegality, neither fully authorized nor expressly banned.

Examples

Living in a state of semilegality makes it difficult for these workers to access public services.
Concerns about the semilegality of gambling websites have prompted recent regulatory changes.
The semilegality of certain online activities raises ethical questions.
Many businesses operate in a state of semilegality to avoid regulations.
Concerns about the semilegality of gambling websites have prompted recent regulatory changes.
The company's operations exist in a zone of semilegality, neither fully authorized nor expressly banned.
Living in a state of semilegality makes it difficult for these workers to access public services.

Synonyms

semi-legality

vssemilegality

8.8

A situation that is partly allowed by law and partly against the law

is written without a hyphen while keeping the identical partly lawful sense

Antonyms

illegality

14 6.7

A state of being against the law

lawfulness

Formal

1 4.7

Being allowed by law

How Legal

legality

Specialized

42 4.1

semilegality

9.5

illegality

14 6.7

Surface Forms

semilegality singular

semilegalities plural

Morphology

semilegality = semilegal (transparent) = semi + legal + ity

The noun is formed regularly from the adjective 'semilegal' with the standard suffix '-ity', so its meaning as a state or condition is easy to recover.

Etymology

The word semilegality joins semi- which means 'half' or 'partly' and legal which means 'lawful', the same semi- you see in semicircle to show 'half'. So semilegality describes a grey area that is only partly lawful, not clearly legal or clearly illegal.